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First 
Lessons in 

Poultry 

Keeping. 



BV 

JOHN H. ROBINSON, 

Editor of FARM-POULTRY.! 



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FARM-POULTRY PUBLISHING CO., 

BOSTON, MASS. 




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FARM-POULTRY SERIES No. 8. 



FIRST LESSONS 

IIN 

POULTRY KEEPING. 

FIRST YEAR COURSE. 

\ 

This series originally appeared in Farm-Poultry serially in 1905. 

The second year course series is now running in that paper. 

BY 

John H. Robinson, 

Editor FARM=POULTRY. 

Author Poultry-Craft, The Common-Sense Poultry Doctor, Broilers and Roasters, Winter Eggs. 



PRICE 50 CEINTS. 



PUBLISHED BY 

FARM-POULTRY PUB. CO., Boston, Mass. 
1905. 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 


Two Copies Received 


DEC 20 1905 


Copyriffrt Entry 

CUSS <** XXe. H«. 

/ 3 f % L± 

COPY B. 



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Copyright, 1905 

BY 

FARM-POULTRY PUB. 00. 
Boston, Mass. 



I'ress of S. <; . R 



ison, 2fi7 Allanlic. Ave, Boston 



CONTENTS. 



Introductory Chapter ""*...""•."." "' " ~ ^ 

. LESSON I. 
Winter Rations for Laying stock -.,.- - - - - - ~ 

LESSON ir. 
The " Hows" and " Whys" of Feeding Laying Stock in Winter - 14 

LESSON III. 
(ienkkal Principles and Rules for Poultry Breeders is 

LESSON IV. 
Putting Principles of Breeding Into Practice - 24 

' LESSON V. 

Hatching Chicks With Hens - - - 85 

LESSON VI. 
Bearing Chicks With Bens -------43 

LESSON VII. 
Tin: Care of Chicks From Weaning to Maturity - 

LES80N VIII. 
Points to be Considered in Poultry Bouse Construction - 59 

LESSON IX. 
Tw«> Plain Cheap Poultry Bouses of Simple Construction - 66 

LESSON \. 
Five GOOD Small POULTRY HOUSES - 77 



iv. CONTENTS. 

LESSON XL 
Summer Management of Fowls -- ----01 

LESSON XII. 
Continuous Poultry Houses.— Continuous vs. Separate Houses - - 99 

LESSON XIII. 
Incubator Rooms and Brooder Houses ______ iQg 

LESSON XIV. 
Simple vs. So-Called Scientific Poultry Feeding - - - - 112 

LESSON XV. 
Poultry House Fixtures ________ 120 

LESSON XVI. 
Poultry Fences and Yards - - - - - - - 129 

LESSON XVII. 
Getting Ready for Winter - \ ------ 133 

LESSON XVIII. 
Exhibiting Fowls - - - - - - - - -139 

LESSON XIX. 
The Fattening of Poultry - - - - - - - -149 

LESSON XX. 
Selling Market Poultry and Eggs - - - - - - - 154 

LESSON XXI. 
Selling Exhibition Stock and Eggs for Hatching 161 



Index _-__-__---_ \w 



First Lessons in Poultry Keeping 



FIRST YEAR COURSE.* 



Introductory. 

BEFORE taking up the regular work of tbis course every reader who intends to follow it 
through the year should consider carefully a few propositions about poultry keeping. 
These may not be in accordance with some ideas about it which he has absorbed, he 
knows not where; but if he is to get much benefit from these lessons he must accept 
them, at least provisionally, and pursue his study and carry on his work on the assumption 
that they are correct. 

The first of these propositions is this : 

(1). Poultry keeping is a simple occupation in that it requires no great knowledge or 
ability. 

Araoug successful poultry keepers we find men and women of practically all grades of intel- 
ligence and all degrees of general capability. 

Why then are there so many failures in poultry keeping? The answer to tbis question is 
-.digested in our second and third propositions. 

(2) . Poultry keeping is an occupation involving a variety of simple operations. 

1 3). Successful poultry keeping depends upon the regular, faithful > and general accu- 
rate performance of many small tasks. 

People fail in poultry keeping because they take hard and laborious ways of doing things 
that may be done easily ; or because they entirely omit some necessary though simple feature 
of the work ; or because they are irregular and spasmodic in carrying out a routine which 
theoretically is all that it should be. 

Nine out of ten who have read this far will be ready to say : — " Why, that is all very easy; 
anyone can do that from the start." 

It is right there that nine out of ten go wrong. An occupation involving many simple opera- 
tion* becomes complex if one and the same person has to carry on many of these operation* 
simultaneously; and that is just the condition we have in poultry keeping. After one has 
learned these simple things and practiced them until the doing of tbem becomes almost 
mechanical, they come easy, but they have to be learned one by one, and time is required to 
become proficient in them through practice. 

•Tln-se Lessons first appeared in serial form In FARM-POULTRY, 1906, In ;i course designed to run through 
Several years, and arc Issued in pamphlet form for llio.se who desire Lo preserve Uiem in more compact 
form than in tiles of Hie paper; and for later subscribers to the paper who desire to do the first year's 
work either before or with the later course. 



6 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

In this course of lessons we are going to take up the many different things that have to be 
considered as nearly as possible at the time when the poultry keeper has to think most about 
them in his work with poultry ; and in this first year's work we are going to discuss them only 
as far as is necessary to make it plain what ought to be done— what general practice, or the best 
practice, indicates as best to be done. 

The reader who will be content to let each lesson pass after he has got that much out of it 
will, I think, be the one who will get most actual value out of the lessons for the year. 

Remember that these lessons are but one part of the course; the other part is the work each 
one is doing in his poultry yard. The purpose of this course is to supplement practical work, 
to help each one to form his plans and apply his energies for practical results, and to give him 
a better insight into the teachings of his own experience. 

As we proceed there will be propositions laid down and rules given that a good many will at 
the time think extreme, but the great majority of beginners will find it to their advantage to 
accept these propositions and conform to the rules, for they will be based on what the experi- 
ence of many beginners has shown is safe for the average beginner. 

I know that there are few beginners who do not think they are going to be the exceptions, 
but the beginner makes a mistake when he assumes that. The better way is to» take it for 
granted at the start that at the best one is likely to get only average results, and to stick to con- 
ditions that are safe, and to methods that make the work as easy as possible. 

Here are three more things to think about: 

The thing of prime importance is to make a success, hovjever small, by some method, 
however simple. 

A small success by safe methods is better, as far as learning from it goes, than strik- 
ingly good results by unsafe methods. 

One can build safely on such a small success, lohile the longer he plans on the unsafe 
basis the more likely he is to fail beyond his power to redeem the situation. 

Almost all readers will accept these as abstract propositions, but what I want of those who 
follow these lessons is that one and all keep their poultry keeping on a safe basis, and take only 
the unavoidable risks. If they will do that they will avoid many (I hope most) of the small 
losses that discourage the beginner. All should go slow in fact, as we will go in these lessons, 
on paper. 

Remember we have plenty of time. This is not to be a ten lesson course, or a one year 
course. The first year course is only the beginning. We expect to take three full years to 
complete the course, digesting and assimilating facts, principles, and rules as we go. 

There may be people who can learn faster than that, but a course of instruction should 
proceed at a pace adapted to the average, or, better, the slow student. Then the brighter and 
quicker ones can put their superiority to good use by doing better and more thorough work. 
You know the common fault of smartness is that it goes too fast for its possessor as well as 
too fast for others. In these lessons we want a pace all can hold, and that will hold all to 
their work. 



I don't want to discourage anyone from reading as much about poultry and poultry culture 
as his interest in the subject may tempt him to read, and his time allow; but I urge every 
(student in this, course to make a thorough mastery of the particular facts presented in the 
current lesson, his first object throughout the year, and let all other poultry interests be 
secondary. 

It will take but a little time — only a very few minutes a day — to learn the lessons in the 
paper. It will take hours of thinking and trying every day to put them into practice, and it is 
practice that makes perfect. The student can learn his lesson by rote in a very short time, but 
applying it in profitable practice is a very different matter. It is experience and experiment in 
the poultry yard day by day that gives him a real understanding of what he learns or reads. 
One cap learn theoretically as much faster than he can acquire judgment and skill practically, 
as one can think faster than he can put his thoughts in good language. Keep this in mind. 
Reading increases one's information very rapidly, but thinking and working the same things 
over and over, make one thorough and skillful. In this is the true science of poultry keeping. 



FIJiS'l LESSONS IX FOULTMX KEEtlNG. 



LESSON I. 



Winter Rations For Laying Stock. 



IN this lesson we consider methods of winter feeding- of fowls kept for laying purposes. 
Let the reader note first, that the food while an important factor, is but one of several 
factors in egg production : hence it is possible for hens that are properly fed on a suitable 
ration to fail to produce eggs, or to give a very unsatisfactory yield. Other matters affect- 
ing the egg yield will be considered, each in its proper place. In this lesson we confine our- 
selves to the treatment (I) of the properties of the principal staple articles of poultry food gen- 
erally available at this season ; (2) of the methods of feeding; (3) of a few good specific rations. 

Principal Poultry Foods and Food Accessories. 

The articles included under this heading may be grouped into seven classes, as follows: 
I. Whole Grains.— Corn, wheat, barley, oats, and millet. 
II. Cracked Grain and Mixtures. — Cracked corn and the prepared " scratching feeds.'' 

III. Ground Grains.— Corn meal, corn chop, ground oats, wheat bran, wheat middlings, 
" mixed chop v (corn and oats ground together), "provender," (a mixture of ground 
corn, oats, and bran), and the various brands of mixed ground feeds. 

IV. Green and Vegetable Foods.— Cabbage, cut clover or clover meal, cut alfalfa or 

alfal/a meal, aud the common root vegetables. 
V. Meat Foods.— Creeii cut bone, beef, pork and mutton scraps, meat meals, and animal 

meals so-called. 
VI. Food Accessories.— Shell, grit, charcoal, and condiments. 
VII. Drinks.— Water and milk. 
Considering these classes separately : — 

I. Whole Grains. 

Whole corn is to be fed very sparingly because the grains are so large that fowls fed 
it freely and often get too much of their ration without exercise. 

Wheat and barley may be fed very freely. 

( >ats and mi"et are generally used in small quantities, as light midday meals. Ordinary 
lots of both contain so much unfilled grain that there is little advantage in using them. 

II. Cracked Grains and Mixtures. 

Cracked corn may be fed in winter as freely as wheat and barley. At usual prices it is 
the most economical grain food, and should be the major part of the grain ration in 
winter. 

The various brands of mixed grains are composed generally of cracked corn, small and 
broken wheat, barley, oats, buckwheat, millet, etc. The economy and advantage of using 
them depend upon ease or difficulty of getting the needful variety of unmixed grains of 
local dealers, and upon whether the keeper gives the necessary attention to variety when 
buying his grains separately. 



8 FIBS! LESSONS 1 IN POULTBY KEEPING. 

III. Ground Grains. 

The com product", corn meal aud corn chop, are the most important of these, and one or 
the other is almost universally used as the basis of the mash. Corn chop being coarser is 
preferable for stock food, but in many places only meal can be obtained. 

Mixed chop is a valuable food article, as also is coarsely grouud oats, often purchased 
separately and used with corn meal and other Btuffs in the mash. 

The by products of wheat flour, bran and shorts or middlings are valuable and altnost 
essential articles in making mashes. There is an unfortunate confusion in the vise of the 
names of these stuffs, the term shorts, which is properly another name for middlings, is in 
many localities applied to bran, while the shorts are known as "white middlings" or 
"red dog," (sometimes red dog flour) according to color. White flour of quality unfit for 
household use is often used in mashes, and when obtainable at about the same price is to 
be preferred to middlings. 

A number of mixtures of ground feed stufFs are on the market, and many users of them 
report good results; but it is better for the beginner who wants to learn his business to 
learn to mix stuffs before buying mixtures, then if a mixture needs to be altered to suit 
his purpose or the rest of his ration he will soon discover that fact. 

IV. Green and Vegetable Foods. 

The best of these, all things considered, is cabbage, but it cannot always be obtained at a 
satisfactory price. Indeed unless a poultrymau has laid in a supply in the fall he is 
very uncertain of getting it. Then cut clover and alfalfa, and clover and alfalfa meal 
make excellent green foods, and can generally be obtained at reasonable prices. Potatoes, 
turnips, beets, carrots, onions, apples, etc., are useful when on hand or procurable at low 
prices. 

V. Meat Foods. 

While it is difficult to estimate relative values of meat foods exactly, and the quality 
of articles of the same name or brand is not always the same, green cut bone is generally 
considered the best of the meat foods, and would probably be used in preference 
to any and all others if it could be obtained in ample supply at a price which would not 
too much increase the cost of the ration. 

Most poultry keepers use more or less of the prepared meat scraps,'meals, etc. There 
are many brands of these, and they are of widely different feeding value. 

VI. Food Accessories. 

Shell seems to be indispensable for laying stock. Ground oyster shell is most commonly 
used. 

Grit is generally given with shell, both being kept before the fowls, but while con- 
siderable quantities of it are often consumed, it does not seem to be absolutely essential 
to fowls supplied with shell. 

Charcoal used as a corrective and blood purifier is kept before the fowls in granulated 
form by most poultrymen. 

Of condiments, egg powders and foods, there are many, and they are very generally 
used by novices, aud in a great many cases seem to contribute enough to results to justify 
their use. Their virtue is in tonic and stimulating properties. They help correct the 
novice's faults in feeding. 

VII. Drinks. 

Fowls should be liberally supplied with good water. So large a proportion of their diet 
consists of concentrated foods that an abundance of liquid is necessary to keep the digest- 
ive organs working freely. , 

Milk — sweet, sour, or clabber — may be given them as a drink, or mixed in the mash ; 
but as a drink, milk is but a partial substitute for water, which should always be 
supplied. , 

The Food Supplies for a Flock. 

For economy, and a simple system of feeding, the poultryman should use as few articles as 
is consistent with an attractive variety in the ration. For his mash he needs corn chop or meal, 
bran and middlings, or flour. Then if he supplies his hens with green food and meat food, as 



FIRST LESSONS LV POULTRY KEEPING. 9 

he should, one grain will do, ami if only one grain is used, eraeked corn is to be preferred both 
for its feeding value at till* season, and on the score of economy. If wheat or barley can be 
hail at little more than the price of corn, one adds to his variety without materially increasing 
the cost of feeding, by using one or both, either with the cracked corn in a mixture or separately 
as one meal, preferably the noon meal. 

For green food he should have either cabbage or cut hay, (clover or alfalfa), and consider 
line of these necessary. Such other vegetables as he can get at a right price should be used in 
addition. 

For meat food, one article is enough if it can be had in constant supply, but because of the 
general variableness of supply of green bone, and the frequent occasions when it is incon- 
venient to prepare it, it is good policy to keep a supply of beef scrap or meat meal on hand for 
such emergencies. 

Then of the accessories, shell is necessary, absolutely. The consensus of opinion among 
poultry keepers is that it is best to have grit and charcoal also constantly before the fowls. 

To sum up. The necessaries of life, when a mash is used, are corn chop or meal, bran, 
middlings, cracked corn, cabbage, or hay, (clover or alfalfa), one article of meat food, shell, 
grit, charcoal, and water. 

To these may be added such other articles as are available for economical use. 

riethods of Feeding. 

Methods of feeding poultry may be classified as follows: 
(1). The Mash System, in which a wet, scalded, or cooked mash is fed once each day, grain 
being given once or twice. 
The mash may be given : 

(a) In the morniug — the common way. 

(b) In the evening — as an important minority prefer. 

(c) At noon — the practice of a very few. 

There is no evidence that the time of feeding mash makes any difference to the hens. 
It is a matter of the convenience of the keeper. 
<2). Dry Feed Systems. 

(a) Dry mash, (ingredients same as in a wet mash), and grains. 

(b) All dry grains. 

Dry feeding is used by many regularly where it is inconvenient to make and feed a wet 

mash, or when results from the use of mashes have beeu bad or unsatisfactory, as they 

often are when badly prepared, or ill balanced mashes are used, or when something in 

the rest of the ration does not work well with a mash. It might be used by many more 

occasionally to good advantage; as on an extremely cold day when a wet mash would 

freeze as soon as put down, or for a flock with mild chronic diarrhea. 

The limits and scope of this les>on do not admit of a full discussion of feeding systems in the 

course of which it is necessary to consider the relations of the method of feeding to each and 

all of the man) points affecting the welfare and productiveness of fowls, but the following 

condensed statement of the subject may aid the reader to decide what method will best suit 

him and his circumstances: 

Advantages of the flash. 

The use of- a mash serves these important purposes: 

{1).— As is indicated by the list of ground grains tfiven, and as will appear more fully when 
recipes for mashes are given, the mash contains a variety of ingredients, and the propor- 
tions of these can be varied greatly, and the consistency of the mash also varied some- 
what, thus making it possible to give considerable variety to the ration, as a whole, while 
using but one or two grains for the other meals. 

(2).— The mash being fed in troughs the feeder can gauge the quantities of it, and also of the 
other grains fed by the appetite the fowls show for the mash more accurately than in any 
other way. 

(3). — Through the mash the bulk of the ration may be increased, and the concentrated feed 
stuffs used diluted, (with hay and bran ),and so rich foods used safely in larger quantities 
than if taken into the system undiluted. 



10 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

(4).— Small potatoes and other waste vegetable most generally available for poultry food can 
best be fed in a mash. 

Common Errors to be Avoided in Mash Feeding. 

Whatever may be the advantages of a method properly applied, faulty application of it 
always involves possibilities of trouble which may become serious. In mash feeding these are: 
(1).— Too concentrated mashes; that is, mashes containing too large a proportion of the richest 

food elements, as meals and meat preparations. 
(2).— Too light and bulky mashes, that is, mashes composed mostly of hay and bran, which fill 

the crop without supplying sufficient nutriment. 
(3). — Too wet and sloppy mashes; and sour or moldy mashes. 
(4). — Feeding mashes too often. Experience has shown that more than one mash a day to 

adult fowls almost invariably and quickly produces indigestion. 

Advantages of Dry Feeding. 

In estimating the advantages of dry feeding, we have to consider some of them as, in a degree, 
apparent and theoretical rather than as actual, for it becomes clear, as the case is fully stated, 
that wha>t seems a saving of time or labor is sometimes merely a shifting of labor fcom one 
place to another. We have then as the nominal advantages of dry feeding : 
(1). The saving of labor in making mashes. 
(2). Avoidance of the dangers of improperly prepared mashes. 

(3). Allows more variation in the time of feeding the meal, which takes the place of the wet 
mash, and so gives the keeper more freedom. 

Errors to be Avoided in Dry Feeding. 

The wet, or moist, mash fed daily, provides daily one feed which is practically a succulent 
food, and if properly prepared is a bulky food. In dry feeding:— If all hard grains are fed, the 
fowls get no extra bulk in them, and of course no succulence : — If a dry mash is fed they get 
gome increase of bulk without succulence. Hence it is apparent that in dry feeding unusual 
provision must be made for bulky and succulent food — especially green food. Taking this as 
the principal fault of the system , we have : 
(1). Failure to supply sufficient succulent food.' 
(2). Waste of food when ground grains are kept before the fowls in open dishes or hoppers. 

Which System? 

The writer has no hesitation in stating his preference for the mash system as in his experi- 
ence and opinion the better system for most poultry keepers. He would therefore advise 
beginners to use that system unless such greater convenience as dry feeding gives fitted into 
their days' routine better. 

As a matter of fact the two systems are nearly identical for all but' one meal a day, and 
reduced to the last analysis the difference between them may be broadly stated thus: — 

The use of a good wet or moist mash containing a variety of ingredients, makes it necessary to 
give more time and care to the preparation of this one meal, but in it provision is made for 
requirements of the fowl which when only dry feeds are given must regularly be specially 
provided for. The omission of a mash, or substitution of a mixture of ground grains dry, 
makes an economy with reference to the feeding of one meal each day, but makes it imper- 
ative that vegetable foods in abundance should be provided at other times. 



As the careful reader will doubtless have observed, the two systems supply the requirements 
of the fowls in different ways. Each is in effect an offset for the faults of the other. The prac- 
tice of the most skillful feeders is in effect ajudicious blending of the systems. Some of the 
most enthusiastic advocates of dry feeding push it, not as the best method, but as easier and 
safer for the beginner. As there is nothing about poultry feeding too deep or too hard for any- 
one of ordinary intelligence who gives the subject of feeding a little careful attention and notes 
the effects of his feeding on his fowls, the better policy would seem to be to learn to properly 
apply the mash system — unless, as previously stated — circumstances make it too inconvenient 
to work by that method. 



FIRST LESSONS l\ POULTRY KEEPING, 11 

A Few Good Sample Rations. 

Having learned something of common food stuffs and their properties, we are ready to begin 
to feed fowls intelligently; that is, with some appreciation of the reasons for doing tilings in 
the way we do them. The reader should keep it clearly in mind all the time that while there 
are many possible rations that will give good results, there are also many combinations possible 
that will not give good results, and the way for the beginner to avoid a bad combination is to 
follow some one approved method, not attempting, as many do, to improve on the experts by 
combining features of different rations that have given good results. The sample rations given 
will cover all ordinary conditions, and the reader working by these lessons is advised to select 
that which suits him best, and follow it as closely as he can, departing from it only when lie is 
absolutely sure that the change he makes cannot affect his results for the worse. 

Let us take up first a few rations including a mash. As has been stated, it makes no differ- 
ence, to the fowls when the mash is fed. The feeder may time it to suit his convenience. The 
time of feeding the mash may, however, make a difference in the other meals. 

Taking for our first illustration one of the most common rations in use, we have: — 
Ration I. Morning. — Mash of corn meal, bran, and beef scrap. 
Noon. — Wheat, barley, oats, or millet. 
Evening. — Cracked corn. 

Cabbage supplied practically all the time. 
Grit and shell always before the fowls. 

In this ration the morning and evening feeds are " full feeds; " that is, the fowls are given 
all they will eat. The noon feed is a light feed, say half as much as the evening feed of grain. 
The grains are fed scattered in litter spread over the floor of the house, so that the fowls have 
t<» scratch for them. 

If now, one using the ingredients in this ration wished to feed the mash in the evening, he 
could simply transpose the morning and evening meals, making his system: — 

Ration II. Morning. — Cracked corn. 

Noon. — Wheat, barley, oats, or millet. 

Evening. — Mash of corn meal, bran, and beef scrap. 
Cabbage, etc., as in Ration I. 
But if he wanted to feed the mash at noon it might be necessary to make some changes. 
For instance, — in either of the rations given above, millet or oats, both light feeds, and not 
eaten freely by fowls, can be used to good advantage at noon when, with full feeds morning 
aud evening, only a light feed is needed. But if the mash is given at noon, and made a light 
teed, both the other feeds must be full feeds, and neither oats nor millet is suitable for regular 
use as a full feed. So the ration with a noon mash must be like this: 

Ration III. Morning.— Wheat or barley. 

Noon. — Mash of corn meal, bran, and beef scraps. 
Evening.— Cracked corn. 
Cabbage, etc., as in Ration I. 
In this ration (a) the morning and evening feeds of grain should be full feeds, and the mash 
at noon a light feed or half feed, that is, about half wheat, the fowls will eat freely ; or (h) all 
three feeds should be rather scant feeds. I would advise beginners not to use the noon mash 
unless for special and urgent reasons, for I think it is more difficult to keep fowls' appetites 
steady when the mash is fed at noon. 



Instead of feeding one grain at a time, several grains may be mixed together, and the mix- 
ture fed once or twice a day. Suppose we make this change in each of the rations given, 
designating our substitutes by the same numbers with the letter A added. Then we have : 

Ration I. A. Morning.— Mash as in Ration I. 

Noon.— -Mixture cracked corn and wheat, equal parts, (a half feed). 
Evening.— Cracked com and wheat, equal parts, (a full feed). 
Cabbage, etc., as in Ration I. 



12 FIRST LESSONS /A POULTRY KEEPING. 

Ration II. A. Morning. — Cracked corn and wheat, equal parts, (a full feed). 
Noon.— Cracked corn and wheat, equal parts, (a half feed). 
Evening.— Mash as In Ration II. 
Cabbage, etc., as in Ration I. 
Ration III. A. Morning.— Cracked corn and wheat, equal parts. 
Noon.— Mash as in Ration III. 
Evening.— Cracked corn and wheat, equal parts. 
Cabbage, etc., as in Ration I. 

Making a Mash. 

No. 1. A Grain and Meat Mash.— 

To make the mash used in the above ration, making it in small quantities, and by a method 
calling for nothing special in the way of utensils, proceed as follows: 

For as much mash as can be readily mixed in an ordinary 3 gallon pail (preferably a pail of 
heavy tin, galvanized iron or granite ware), take 2 quarts of corn meal in the pail. Have a 
kettle of boiling water ready. Pour the water slowly over the meal in the pail, as you pour 
stir-ring with a long handled iron spoon. Pour on water and stir until you have a stiff smooth 
mash. 

Now take the bran — about 3 quarts at first and stir it in, adding a little more if you find you 
ean mix it. Perhaps it will take a quart more, and if the water was boiling and the meal 
swelled right, your mash should now be a stiff and rather brittle dough. Now put in the beef 
scraps or meat meal you wish to feed in the mash. The quantity you can use will depend on 
the character of the article, aud also on the remainder of the ration and the constitution of the 
fowls, but in general fowls given all their meat food in the mash will take meat scraps or meal 
to the amount of about 8 or 10% of the dry bulk of the grain stuffs in the mash. That would 
be in this case, say about a pint of scraps. In many cases twice as much scrap may be given to 
advantage, but the above proportions are safe. 

Having put in the beef scrap, stir until it seems to be thoroughly mixed. The mash is now 
ready to feed. 
No. 2. A Vegetable Mash.— 

We will call this a vegetable mash because the addition of cooked vegetables is all that makes 
it different from mash No 1. Any waste vegetables or parings can go into it. Cook them in 
water until they are quite soft and will break up readily with the spoon when mixed with the 
other ingredients. For a pail full of mash take about 3 or 4 quarts of vegetables. When 
ready to mix the mash, have the meal in the pail as in mash No. 1, and pour the boiling water 
from the vegetables on it and stir as before. Then stir in the vegetables, bran and meat 
scraps as before. 
No. 3. A Clover or Alfalfa Mash.— 

In this cut clover or clover meal —or alfalfa or alfalfa meal — is used instead of vegetables. 
Two or three quarts of the cut dry hay may be used in a pail full of mash, and when hay is 
used the quantity of bran should be reduced until the meal and bran are about equal. The 
•cut hay may be stirred into the mixture at almost any stage. It may be cooked for a few 
minutes in the water in a pot and the corn meal stirred into the water, or mixed in after the 
meal or after the bran or with the bran. 

A Dry Grain Ration. 

Ration IV. Morning and Evening.— Mixed grain as in ration III. A. 

Noon. — Cabbage. 

Beef scrap, etc., in hoppers accessible at all times. 
This ration could be varied by using one grain in the morning and another in the evening; 
or if fresh meat, raw or cooked, or cut bone was used, the noon feed might be alternately 
cabbage and meat, but the substantial meals of the day must be given morning and evening. 

Dry Mash Rations. 

In these a mash made of the same grain ingredients in the same proportions as the mash 
iu Rations I., II., and III., may be used. The meat may be mixed with the dry grains or 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. IS 

fed separately. If mixed with them we could substitute the dry for the wet mash In each of 
these rations. For conveneiuce and future reference we will repeat these rations here, 
making the substitution. We have then: 

Ration V. Morning. — Dry mash of corn meal, bran, and beef scrap. 
Noon.— Wheat, barley, oats or millet. 
Evening.— Cracked corn. 
Cabbage, grit, and shell always before the fowls. 

Ration VI. Morning. —Cracked com. 

Noon.— Wheat, barley, oats, or millet. 

Evening. — Dry mash of corn meal, bran, and beef scraps. 
Cabbage, etc., as In Ration V. 

Ration VII. Morning.— Wheat or barley. 

Noon. — Mash of corn meal, bran, and beef scrap. 
Evening.— Cracked corn. 

Cabbaire, etc., as in Ration V. 
Before bringing this lesson to a close, I will give one more ration, including dry feed fed 
in a hopper: 

Ration VIII. Morning and Evening. — Mixed grain, \ part wheat, 1 part barley, 2 parts 
cracked corn. 

Ground mixture, equal parts corn and oats, one-half bran added, always 
before the fowls in hoppers. 
Cabbage, grit and shell always accessible. 
This last is a ration for one who has little time to give his poultry. Its simple aim Is 
to insure that the fowls will have enough to eat and a fair variety in food. 




14 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



LESSON II. 



The " Hows" and "Whys" of Feeding Laying Stock 

in Winter. 



IN THE preceding lesson we discussed poultry food stuffs and the systems of feeding with 
relation to their effect on the composition of rations. In this lesson we are to take up 
another class of questions on feeding, and try to give readers a useful understanding of 
these three topics :— 

How often to feed. 

How much to feed. 

The relation of exercise to diet. 

These three matters blend inseparably in practice, and we can hardly exclude anyone of them 
from a discussion of another. Yet to appreciate them correctly one must separate them more 
in his mind than he can in his work. 

How Often to Feed. 

Perhaps many are thinking that as all but one of the rations given in Lesson I. provide for 
three meals a day, the question of how often to feed is almost superfluous. It might be so con- 
sidered if everyone was so situated that he could give his hens three feeds, corresponding to his 
own three meals, a day, but a great many poultry keepers cannot do this, so want to know 
what other arrangement is practicable. 

For the short winter days two feeds a day would generally give as good results as three, but 
for one thing — the difficulty of keeping fowls in confinement interested in something, and out 
of mischief when there is too long an interval between feeds. Idle fowls contract vices of 
various kinds — such as feather and egg eating — besides gradually going out of condition from 
want of exercise. So whenever it is practicable to do so, it is advisable to give some sort of 
light feed in the middle of the day. 

If, however, it is not convenient to do this, the noon feed may be either omitted or fed in the 
morning. Thus, in Eation I., the mash may 1>e fed in the morning, and the grain for the noon 
feed fed at the same time, scattered in litter, and the fowls have something to keep tbem 
occupied through the greater part of the day. When cabbage or mangels are kept before the 
fowls, these things help to keep them occupied. "So we may say that, provided some provision 
Is made to give the fowls something to occupy their attention between regular meals, two meals 
will work as well in winter as three. 

Feeding Onc,e a Day.— I have had occasional reports from poultry keepers who could 
give their fowls attention only once each day, some in the morning and some in the evening, 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 15 

and these sometimes are able to report good results, but, as a rule, those who get good winter 
egg yields look after the fowls ofteuer and regularly. One who has time to look after his fowls 
in the morniug only may arrange this way :— 

Mash, to be eaten at once, followed by grain for the remainder of the day, thrown in 
litter, and eaten as the fowls work for it. 
One who has only the evening to attend his fowls by daylight may use this plan : — 

Graiu,to give a full feed in the morning, and something left to serateh for until 
well into the afternoon, may be thrown into the litter on the floor, either after the 
fowls go to roost at night or before daylight in the morning. Then the evening mash 
may be given just before dark. 

Obstacles to Poultry Keeping When One Cannot Watch the Fowls.— The principal 

difficulties in the way of poultry keeping when one can give so little attention to the fowls i»\ 
daylight come in in connection with other matters than the feeding of grain and mashes. Proper 
ventilation of a closed house is almost impossible when the poultry keeper is away all day, ami 
it is a problem to keep water from freezing in a cold house. One who can attend to his fowl* 
at noon can replenish the water supply, but one who cauuot must use some kind of "anti-freez- 
ing" fountain. 

On the whole I would not advise anyone to attempt much with poultry or encourage them to 
expect much from hens in winter unless the hens can have pretty good attention, for taking one 
flock and one year with another the winter egg yields are in proportion to the judicious atten- 
tion triven the flock. Hence, if the poultry keeper cannot make provision for some member of 
his family to attend to such wants of his fowls as he cannot look after, he must not think that 
failure to get results iudicates something wrong with the fowls, the house, or the ration. 

How Much to Feed. 

This question seems to cause beginners more worry than any other connected with the subject 
of feeding. They find it hard to understand why fowls cannot be fed exactly by weight or 
measure. An explanation of this would require a much more exhaustive treatment of the sub- 
ject than is appropriate in an elementary lesson ; and the student must accept the fact and wait 
for experience and later lessons to furnish the explanation of it. An experienced feeder can 
tell a novice approximately how much to feed to average or medium sized hens. 

How Much Mash.— Mashes vary so much in composition and consistency that the best rule 
th;it can be given is :— all they will eat up clean and quickly, that is in, say, fifteen or twenty 
minutes. 

Some poultry men leave mash before the fowls for several hours, or even give so much thaf 
they will not eat the last of it until noon, but it is better to give only what they will eat quickly 
and let them have grain, cabbage or roots to supplement it through the day than to give so 
much mash. 

If fowls do not eat mash readily and freely, it is either because the mash is not palatable, or 
because the previous feed was too heavy, or the interval between the meals not long enough. 
Generally, a dozen fowls will eat about three pints of the No. 1 mash, (Lesson I.) and a third 
to a half more of No. 2 or No. 3 mash. 

How Much Grain.— When grain is fed where the fowls can get it quickly, and with little 
effort, a pint is a fair allowance for eight or ten fowls. When it is fed in deep litter more 
than a full allowance must be in the litter if the fowls are to get their full feed within a reason- 
aide time. In that case give about a quart to a dozen fowls. Thus in using Ration 1. 
' Lesson I.) give at the rate of a quart of cracked corn to the dozen fowls, giving the corn in 
litter at least an hour before sundown. Then the fowls can get a full feed before dark, while 
what is left in the litter furnishes them something to work for in the morning, both before ami 
after the mash i> fed ; while in Ration No. IV., a quart of grain given in the morning furnishes 
a good meal within an hour or so, and leaves something for the fowls to scratch for until the 
evening meal is given. 



16 FIR 1ST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

How Much Meat and Bone.— If sound sweet food of this class is fed regularly atul 
often it is generally safe to give the fowls all they will eat, if the meat food is fed separately. 
Fresh meat may be used very freely in the mash, but the dried concentrated meat products 
must be used with some caution. (See " Making a Mash," in Lesson I.) 

How Much Vegetable Food.— In winter it is practically impossible to feed too much 
vegetable food to fowls well fed on grain, because the appetite does not demand it, and 
they will eat green stuffs in much more limited quantities than in hot weather when heavy 
grain rations required to make eggs and growth are so heating that the fowls by choice 
fill up on green food which keeps them more comfortable, but does not always accomplish the 
results the poultryman is trying to get. 

Good Feeding Means Heavy Feeding. 

The longer I practice and study poultry feeding, and the more I see of the results of the feed- 
ing of others, the more I am convinced that the best feeding is not the most carefully adjusted 
ration, but the ration and the method that provides the fowls a little more than enough under 
conditions which require them to work for enough of what they get to give them the exercise 
they need to keep them in good condition. 

A fowl can let a surplus alone, but has no way of making up a shortage— at least none that is 
satisfactory to the owner. 

As between feeding short and overfeeding, I have seen good egg yields comeoftener from the 
latter, especially with young stock; but there is little danger of bad effects from overfeeding if 
fowls have to take exercise by scratching for several hours a day. 

Points to Consider in Determining Quantity in Feeding. 

In deciding how much to feed, the poultryman has in the fowl itself three guides, three things 
that should furnish indications whether he is feeding right. These in the order in which it is 
most natural to use them are: — (1) appetite, (2) results, (3) condition. 

Appetite.— The fowls should be ready and eager for each feed, even the light noon feed. If 
they are not there should be either a change of time of feeding or a reduction of the quantity 
given at the preceding feed. Frequently, poultrymen who feed the mash very early in the 
morning find that the hens do not seem to care for it at that time, though an hour, or even a 
half hour later, they will eat it readily. If the mash must be fed early, the night feed should 
be reduced until they will eat the mash, but it will generally work better to give the full feed of 
grain at night, and delay feeding the mash until the sun is well up. 

Results and Condition.— If hens are laying well, the presumption is that the feeding is 
about right. In that case the point to watch is to see that the hens have food enough to keep 
them in good condition while laying. A hen that is in laying condition can hardly be overfed. 
If hens that presumably should be laying are not, the keeper should ascertain their condition by 
handling them. If not plump and solid they should be given more food, and richer food. If 
overfat they should be put on a diet of grain, and made to scratch for what they get uutil flesh is 
reduced. Egg production does not, however, depend entirely upon feeding, and the most that 
the poultryman can do is to keep his hens as nearly as possible in laying condition— that is, fat, 
but not so much so that the abdomen is packed with fat, and the hen either becomes sluggish 
or breaks down. 

Exercise and Feeding. 

Exercise by Scratching.— Throughout northerly latitudes the general provision for giving 
fowls exercise is by littering the floors of the houses with straw, hay, leaves, cut corn stalks, or 
any material in which the grain will bury itself, or with which it can be covered, so that the 
fowls must ecratch for it. The proper use of litter calls for the same exercise of judgment as 
the adjustment of the meals or the determination of the proportions of the ingredients of the 
ration. Though errors both ways are numerous, the prevailing tendency is to use too much 
litter and compel too much exercise,— to make it so hard for the fowls to get feed that tht-y 



, 



FIRST LESSONS TN PQULTBY KEEPING, 17 

will work only for what is necessary to sustain life. One reason why Bome people get better 
results from evening mash is because the fowls get a full feed before going to roost, when if fed 
in litter (as they use it) they cannot get a good meal, or cannot get it in the time allowed them. 
Generally speaking, the depth Of any loose and easily worked litter should not be less thai- 
three or four, anil not more than six inches. 

Kxoreise by .lumping;.— A practice handed down since before the days when scratching 
litter was generally provided, is to hang a cabbage or fasten a root of beet or a piece of meal 
jusl out of reach of the fowls so that to get at it they must jump for every mouthful. I think 
this form of exercise of questionable value. A heavy hen carrying a lot of partly developed 
t ggs i> likely to be averse to taking exercise that way, or, if she does try it, to hurt herself, and it 
;.p pears that sometimes jumping for exercise is responsible for the prevalence in a flock of corns 
and bumble foot, particularly when that is the only exercise provided, and the floors are not 
littered. 

Exercise for Occupation. 

So far we have considered exercise, especially with reference to its effects on the condition 
of the fowl, and as a check to rapid feeding. It serves another purpose which indirectly has 
• piite an important relation to the matter of feeding as well as to production. The fowl with 
something to do keeps busy much of the time and is contented. With moderate exercise fowls 
probably more completely digest and assimilate their food, and are productive and keep in good 
condition on less food either than when not taking any exercise or when taking too much 
exercise. Contentment aids digestion and economizes food. But we need not depend solely 
upon exercise dependent upon eating. Fowls given the opportunity to do so will take vigorous 
exercise dusting themselves. In fact, when the sun shines in on the earth floor they will work 
and wallow there by the hour, and this exercise does them just as much good as scratching. 
So occasionally on bright days rake the litter clean from a space on the floor where. the sun 
shines, and give the fowls a chance to put variety into their exercise. 




IS FIH ST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



LESSON III. 



General Principles and Rules for Poultry Breeders, 



LET us first understand clearly that a poultry keeper is not necessarily a poultry breeder. 
The terms poultry keeper, poultry man, poultry raiser, poultry grower, and poultry 
breeder, are commonly used as synonymous, but with the exception of poultry raiser 
and poultry grower, they are not wholly so. 
Poultry keeper applies to anyone who keeps poultry, without regard to experience, skill, 

or success. 
Poultryman applies to a poultry keeper considered as in some degree an expert. 
Poultry raiser and poultry grower apply to persons merely hatching and rearing poultry. 
Poultry breeder applies to those who regulate the reproduction of poultry. 
One person may combine all these functions, but the number who do actually combine them 
is very much less than the whole number of poultry keepers. 

I have been thus explicit in defining these terms because the first step toward right apprecia- 
tion of what poultry breeding demands is correct understanding of what poultry breeding 
means. The breeder of a fowl is the person responsible for the mating of its parents. The 
matter of first and greatest importance in the breeding of poultry is that the breeder should 
know something of the natural laws affecting his work, should understand in a general way the 
principles upon which breeding systems, methods and rules are based; should know the char- 
acteristics and tendencies of the breed, variety, stock and individuals with which he works, 
and should apply his kuowledge with judgment, faithfully and persistently. 

This list of qualifications for poultry breeding may have a formidable look, but let no beginner 
he therefore discouraged. One need not be all this at the beginning. Indeed the list of qual- 
ifications presents an ideal rather than the complement of knowledge and experience which 
even the most skillful breeder brings to his work. Besides, these qualifications only come and 
grow by experience and use. No man ever had or can have a respectable practical knowledge 
of what a breeder must know without experience in breeding. Still a beginner need not feel 
discouraged by a realization of how much he falls short of the knowledge and skill of the expert 
breeder. As the saying goes, "What man has done man can do," and a few years of study, 
observation, and experiment in breeding poultry often make a man a very good breeder. 

Two General Facts of First Importance. 

The first broad fact to be considered in connection with the breeding of poultry is: — 
That our varieties of poultry are all bred to artificial standards, to arbitrary, and 
often unnatural, requirements; that specimens perfect according to any such standard 
are virtually unknown; that in all varieties there are wide variations in individuals: 
that only a small proportion of an average good flock are of special excellence; and 
that a considerable number are not suited for breeding specimens of their own kind 
true to type. 



FIBST LESSONS IX POULTRY KEEPING, 19 

This group of facts, which is given above as one general fact, Is self-evident to the breeder ol 
several years experience, bill is so at variance with the common ideas of persons not familial 
with the history anil methods of the Improvement of domestic animals and plants, that it needs 
to lie specially emphasized here. 

The idea prevails that breeds, varieties, strains and stocks of fowls are fixed, established so 
well that a poultryman who wishes to use a certain kind of stock has only to get that kind of 
stock and all will be plain Balling. That this is not the case the novice discovers very early in 
ills work, but too often fails to realize what his discovery means. He frequently blames the 
breeder of the stock he begins with or the stock itself for unsatisfactory results, tries other stock 
with similar results, and perhaps repeats the process several times before he discovers our 
gecond important general fact, which is: — 

That any i^rade of excellence attained in the breeding of poultry can only be main- 
tained or excelled by continuing the same careful selection by which such excellence 
was developed. 
A beginner cannot expect or be expected to do work that will rival that of the experienced 
breeder in the production of tine fowls, but he may easily produce fowls that if not of high 
excellence in the special features of their kind are still good fowls, and using the experience 
and results of expert breeders and relying upon their advice, he may produce fowls of very 
good breed or variety type. 

The First Principle. 
The foundation principle in all breeding to type or standard is, "Like begets like." This does 
not mean that all fowls of one breed or variety are exact duplicates. What it means is, that 
I be qualities and characteristics of each individual fowl are derived from its ancestors and 
chiefly from its immediate ancestors. 

This is one of those statements which at first may seem so self-evident as to make insistence 
upon it, or emphasis of the fact it declares absurd. To most beginners it seems like an insult 
to their intelligence to ask them to give the matter special consideration. But the beginner, no 
matter how clearly he may see the logic of the statement, cannot understand its real significance 
until he begins to study fowls for the purpose of mating them to produce what he wants in 
their progeny. 

Tben he finds that with breed resemblances go variety differences, with variety resemblances 
go 'train or family differences, with strain or family resemblances go individual differences. 

These individual differences are of varying character and value, and mark the fowl as an 
ordinary or a superior or an inferior specimen ; or as ordinary, superior or inferior in a par- 
ticular character or characters. 

A fowl that is in all points ideal is so rarely produced that practically we do not have to con- 
sider the production of a union of two ideal specimens. What we have to do is to consider 
how to get fowls as nearly as possible of the type which is our ideal from fowls which while iu 
a general way of that type depart from it in some particulars. 

In practice the mating of fowls finally becomes a carefully studied system of balancing desir- 
able and undesirable characters, of offsetting lack of development in a certain feature in one 
fowl by a full, or perhaps an exaggerated development of that feature in Its mate or mates of 
the opposite sex, of securing certain points as a result of the union of fowls in which these 
points ditfer. All our established breeds and varieties of fowls have been made by breeders 
working in this way toward common ideals. Fowls that are not pure bred are for the mo>t 
part results of breeding in which no intelligent selection was used, and as a rule will not trans- 
mit their characteristics with any such regularity and uniformity as is found even in ordinary 
thoroughbred stock. Because of this it is much better for a beginner in breeding poultry to 
begin breeding thoroughbreds than to waste his time with crosses or mongrels. For though 
the laws of breeding are always the same, the results of these laws in crosses and mixtures are 
often so confused that the breeder makes no progress either in the development of his stock or 
in knowledge of the subject. 

Selection of Breeding Stock. 

The first step in breeding upon the principle that like produces like, is tfce selection of indi- 
vidual specimens considered most suitable for the production of offspring of the desired type 
and quality. Selection should be based on the following points: 



20 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

1. Constitutional Vigor and Physical Perfection.— Only healthy, vigorous specimens 
should be used for breeding purposes. No deformed or seriously malformed specimen should 
be used for breeding. There are some minor malformations not in any way affecting the health, 
vigor or practical usefulness of the fowl which should be treated as defects to be offset in the 
mate; but such things as crooked backs, crooked breasts, crooked legs, twisted wings, wry tails 
(that is, tails carried to one side) and squirrel tails (that is, tails carried too high and inclining 
toward the head) should be rigidly excluded from the breeding pen.* 

There are some less serious malformations, perhaps more accurately described as lack of 
development, but as they are somewhat common in all varieties we will mention them here: 
Narrow and shallow bodies, pinched tails, and conspicuous lack of breast development, make 
a fowl unsymmetrical, detract something from its economic value as well as from its appear- 
ance, and often indicate lack of development of some of the internal organs. The breeder who 
carefully avoids using specimens having such faults rarely has cause to regret the loss of the 
use of birds attractive in other particulars which this severe selection rules out. 

Breeding from Fowls thai Have Been Sick. — This is a question which properly 
comes under the head of constitutional vigor. A fowl that has been very sick, though appar- 
ently completely recovered before the breeding season, should not be used to breed from, or if 
such a fowl is of such excellence that it is desirable to get stock from it if possible, it may be 
used, but the breeder should not rely on it for the stock he needs. The chicks from such 
parents are apt to lack constitutional stamina, and frequently are weak in the parts affected by 
the disease the parent had. 

2. Breed Shape.— This is where the breeder's appreciation of the differences in shapes 
of fowls should begin. A fowl may be a well proportioned fowl, and not essentially lacking 
in physical development in any section, and yet not be at all of the shape considered typical 
for its breed. The breeder of thoroughbred stock should learn what is the ideal shape in his 
breed, and follow it as closely as possible iu selecting for his mutings. 

3. Color of Plumage. — While it is almost universally conceded as theoretically right to 
place shape before color, in practice more fanciers give color the precedence, because color 
counts for more in the show room. This actual precedence given color, however, is detri- 
mental to the practical qualities of some of the varieties, and, in general, destructive of dis- 
tinctions in breed shape. Fanciers who compete with others in exhibitions where color is 
more important in awards, and prizes depend on extreme development of certain color 
characteristics, may find their success a justification of the Use of breeding fowls of fine color 
but not at all of breed shape; but those who breed for practical qualities first, or for ordinary 
excellence in fancy points, will always find results, on the whole, more satisfactory if they give 
due precedence to breed shape in selecting their breeding stock. 

4. Comb and Head Appurtenances. — The matter of selection with reference to these 
is, of course, selection for quality, as a bird not having these features of the kind characteristic 
of its breed or variety, would never be considered at all. These features are practically of 
little, if any, importance, but, in breeding exhibition stock, some of them are of very great 
importance. They will be specially considered in connection with statements about mating in 
the next lesson. 

5. Color of Beak and Tjegs. — This is a point to which novices in general give undue 
importance, often selecting or rejecting on this more than all other points. Except as it may 
indicate healthy condition, color in these points has no absolute value ; but considered as giving 
a finishing touch to a fowl, or as conforming with a market demand, it assumes some 
importance. 

•Some breeders would consider this rule too strict, especially with regard to defects which are either not dis- 
Qualiflcalions according to the Standard, or the rules regarding Ihein not rigidly enforced. Willie. I admit 
exceptional cases where for the sake of other special merit, a fowl with one of these faults might be bred from, 
I think it. very evident that the general tendency is to be too lenient with such faults when selecting breeding 
stock, and that to this carelessness much of the weakness and lack of general attractiveness in some pure bred 
stock is due. The cases where the use of malformed specimens is justified by results are so few, and the cases 
where general results condemn their use so numerous, that it seems to me the net result would be much better 
i f no exceptions lo the rule were allowed. 



FIB8T LESS ONS IX FOUL THY KEEPING. 21 

These five points cover the things to he considered in selecting breeding birds on appear- 
anee. I think it Is ;is well not to go beyond that in this year's lessons. 

Novices' Errors in Selection. 

The first serious mistake made by most novices in selecting breeding stock is to consider 
some particular feature, often a superficial one, as indicating purity of blood, aud select with 
reference to excellence in that feature. With selection on this basis, goes rejection of speci- 
mens deficient in this feature. The result is the use for breeding of fowls which, for other 
considerations, ought to be rejected, and the rejection for a minor fault in one place of really 
valuable breeding fowls. The breeder must consider his matings first with reference to the 
more important points, then with reference to the others, and must carefully estimate the total 
'needing value of a fowl when the importance is given each point under consideration. 

In general, this method of selection gives one breeding fowls of good all round excellence 
rather than birds of phenomenal excellence in one particular point, and it is the all round good 
bird that experienced breeders find most reliable in the reproduction of its kind. 

Mating. 

The breeder having selected from his flock such specimens as seem to combine a pleasing 
quality in desirable characteristics with not too marked possession of undesirable features, finds 
his task by no means completed. Instead, he is only now ready to begin the balancing of char- 
acteristics mentioned in the first part of the lesson as distinctively the breeder's work. 

The specimeus which he has selected" are not all alike. Perhaps his selection has resulted in 
sitting aside as possible breeders some specimens with very strong individual differences. It 
may be that his birds, if all bred alike, have some objectionable feature in common, or alike fail 
to show a pleasing excellence in a section of considerable importance. 

Standard Matings. 

Supposing the breeder has males and females of fair merit and nowhere notably deficient: 
if he is to make but a single mating it should be of the male he considers his best, with as many 
of the females as he considers suitable to mate with his male as the male is likely to be able to 
serve efficiently. This is what is called a "standard mating," that is, a mating of specimens of 
opposite sexes conforming most closely to the standard requirements for their variety. 

Compensation Matings. 

After making his Standard mating or matings a breeder may have left birds which may make 
very valuable breeders if properly mated, but if not suitably mated will have no special breed- 
ing value. These are, as a rule, specimens deficient only in one or a few minor points. Such 
specimens in fact as the breeder has whose stock is in some particular deficient. 

If one happens to have fowls of the opposite sex strong in the feature in which these fowls 
are weak, and in other respects not unsuitable to mate with them, he may make such compen- 
sation matings; or if be can buy breeding birds likely to offset these defects in the progeny, it is 
well to do so, if he has room to give to chicks from experimental matings of this kind, but it is 
poor policy to make a number of matings of different types of stock with the expectation of 
having radical defects on one side offset by special excellence on the other. The reasons for 
this cannot be given in the limits of a lesson like this, but the breeder who tries making many 
matings in expectation of getting something from all his stock will shortly realize, if (as he 
should) he keeps records of his matings, that taking one season with another he will produce 
more good stock from one mating of his best specimens than from ten times as many specimens 
mated up in a variety of compensation matings. 

While even a ''Standard*' mating introduces in a degree the compensation principle in the 
balancing of defects ; with close selection, this balancing is within comparatively narrow limits, 
and does not present the radical individual differences too often found when matings are in 
reality crosses of extreme types of the same variety. Such extreme matings are always experi- 
mental, and as a rule are profitable only when the object is to preserve in the stock special 
excellence appearing in an individual which also has faults which make it unwise to mingle the 
blood of this individual with that of the general stock, or make it dominant in it, before the 
special defects of the fowl have been to a considerable degree eliminated. 



22 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

The field for the exercise of skill and good judgment is a very large one. There is prac- 
tically no limit to experimenting iu making matings if one undertakes to discover all the 
possibilities a study of his fowls suggest, but the practical breeder soon learns to confine hi* 
production to what he can get from the matings which will probably give him good results, 
and the beginner may well pattern by him, and give little attention to possible results of matings- 
made merely to utilize birds for breeding purposes. 

The Double Mating System. 

The system of special matings or double matings, so called because exhibition types of the 
sexes are produced from different matings, is a system of matings for color, devised to produce 
color types required by the established standards, but rarely obtained in both sexes from the 
same mating. It will be more fully explained in connection with descriptions of matings for 
varieties with which it is practiced. Where this system is generally used for any variety, the 
beginner will find it is to his advantage to follow it, regardless of whether he considers it 
wrong in principle. 

Should a Novice Hake His Own Matings? 

It will have occurred to many readers that it would be of material advantage to every 
novice to have the benefit of expert advice in mating his fowls. 

There can be no doubt that this is so, and that where the results of his matings has an 
important relation to the finances of his poultry keeping, the expense of securing the services 
of an expert for this work might well be considered a necessary expense, and the expert 
engaged, unless to do so would involve cost entirely out of proportion to the stock kept, in 
which event the breeder is wisest to do the best he can for himself. 

Miscellaneous Information. 

There are a number of general questions about matters relating to the breeding of poultry, 
which do not come under any of the topics we have considered. These we will take up here, 
and treat as briefly as possible, and yet make the points involved clear. 

(1). The Age of Breeding Stock.— 

Under this heading we have a number of common questions which are given herewith, with 
reply following each. 

(a). At what age is a fowl fit for breeding? 

When full grown and well developed sexually. A cockerel will generally serve hens long 
before he is full grown, aud will fertilize eggs. A pullet will often lay before she attains her 
full growth. Such immature stock should not be bred. It will produce, but not often stock 
that in size and stamina will approach the offspring of better developed stock. 

(1)). At what age does a fowl cease to be fit for breeding? 

The age varies greatly. In general, the smaller breeds remain capable of breeding well 
longer than the larger ones. Then the use of the same stock for laying and breeding purposes, 
and the custom of giving the males as many mates as possible tend to greatly shorten the period 
of usefulness of the fowls as breeders. Manyfowls are serviceable breeders for only one season. 
Generally two seasons breeding is as much as can be relied upon. A few fowls breed well for 
much longer periods, but the fowl that is of value enough to the breeder to be used more than 
two seasons is the exception. 

(c). Should fowls of the same age be bred together, or isit better to mate old males with 
joung females, andyoung males with old females? 

It is a mistake to make too much of a point of the relative "age of the sexes. If the young 
birds are well grown, fully developed, and in good condition, they will produce as good chicks 
as old birds. It is really a question of condition rather than of age — or a question of age only 
as age may have affected condition. Young stock of both sexes is much more reliable for fertil- 
ity early in the season. An old cock will sometimes not fertilize eggs at all till toward spring, 
and old hens often give very unsatisfactory results in fertility, even though laying well, early 
in the season. The advantages sometimes found in mating old stock of one sex with young 
stock of the other, is that if the old is a little sluggish, the greater vigor of the young may 
increase fertility, while if the young is not fully developed the effects of immaturity are to some 
extent overcome by the better development of the other sex. 



FIRST LESSONS TN POULTRY KEEPING. 23 

(2 1. Relative Proportion of Males and Females. — 

The breeder who follows the suggestions thiit h:tve been given in regard to selection, will not 
often find it necessary to ask the limit of the number of hens to be allowed to one male, because 
be will mostly find only a few hens like enough to be used In one mating. Where the rules 
given are observed, where only such fowls as arc suitable are mated together, matings Hie 

almost invariably small, and in most cases there is no need of allowing the male more females. 
I f occasionally a male is found which mated with a few females annoys them too much by 
live attentions, tone him down by allowing him to run for a day occasionally with a 
larger flock of hens not used for breeding, and not kept continuously with the male. 

Line Breeding and Inbreeding. 

These are tonics to be treated at length at a more advanced stage in the course. For the 
present I would Bay of line breeding only that if one buys line bred stock he should follow as 
closely as possible the same line of breeding; and of inbreeding that if one selects his stock care- 
fully with reference to constitutional vigor and physical perfection, and avoids mating birds 
with the same, he need have no fear of immediate bad results from inbreeding, and may mate 
in absolute disregard of possible evil from mating birds of near kin. 



0k 



24 



FIUjST L£8tiONti IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



LESSON IV. 



Putting Principles of Breeding Into Practice. 



THE last lesson stated some elementary principles of poultry breeding and discussed them 
in a general way. In this we are to consider more specifically the details to which 
those principles apply and the methods of their application. 
In discussing the selection of breeding stock we found five points upon which selec- 
tion should be based, namely: 

1. Constitutional vigor and physical perfection. 

2. Breed shape. 

3. Color of plumage. 

4. Comb and head appurtenances. 

5. Beak and legs. 

The first of these points needs no further explanation at present. Discussion of it along the 
lines followed for the other points would merely be a statement of the average relative vigor, 
hardiness, etc., of the different breeds, and on these points the differences that concern t lie 
breeder do not follow breed and variety 
divisions. On the other points there are a few 
ihings not mentioned in the last lesson to con- 
sider before special rules for mating are given. 

Breed Shape. 

The first thing for the novice in breeding to 
learn about the shape of the breed he is to 
work with is what is the typical shape for that 
bieed. To appreciate it correctly he must 
also know something about the types of form 
lor other breeds, for our ideas of form in 
fowls are always relative. 

AVe find among fowls, even of the same 
breed and variety, great diversity of form, due 
largely to the general neglect to give shape 
due importance in mating and judging. Some 
of these forms are pleasing, some are not. A 
few of them have been chosen as models for 
particular breeds, and however disregarded in 
practice are still recognized as correct stand- 
ards, and easily recognized as distinct and dis- 
ruptive forms. Not all breeds have SUcb (lis- Lijht Brahma Cock. 




FIRST LESSONS IX V 




Buff Cochins. 



OULTRY KEEPING, 2o 

ttnctlve forms, but man; do have, and the 
breeder with a little effort trains his eye to 
recognize each wherever seen, and to j, r ive 
It due credit when found in the variety or 
breed to which it belongs. 

Dividing fowls (exclusive of Bantams) 
according to the more plainly apparent 
breed shapes, we have : 

1, The Asiatic types.— 

Of these there are three, each breed 
in the Asiatic class having distinct 
breed shape. These three are: The 
Brahma, Cochin, and Langshan. 

The difference between the Brahma 
and Cochin is largely due to the dif- 
ference in plumage; the standard 
Cochin being an extremely heavily 
feathered fowl, so much so that the 
female looks round as a ball, and 
the male also suggests the appearance 
of having more feathers than he can 
use to advantage. The Brahma Is a 
closer feathered bird, and appears to 
have greater length of body. Both 
fowls are large, and the first impres- 



2. 



sion a well shaped specimen gives is of massiveness. The Langshan is of quite differ- 
ent type, not so massive looking as the others, shorter feathered, higher stationed, a 
big, well built but rather spare fowl. A comparison of the cuts which accompany 
this lesson will show the type differences quite plainly. 
The Mediterranean types. 
The principal types of this class are the well known Leghorn and Minorca types. The 

Leghorn is a fowl of graceful carriage 

and fine curves yet with quite a sub- 
stantial body. The Minorca is larger 

with more angular curves, and longer, 

straighter lines. The other breeds in 

this class are the Ancona, which is a 

Leghorn in shape; the Black Spanish, 

much like the Minorca, but with less 

l»readth and depth of body; and the 

Andalusian a type intermediate between 

the Leghorn and Minorca. 

The American types. 
We may speak of the American type or 
of American types. In a general way 
the fowls of the American class are of 
the same type, a type intermediate 
between the Asiatic and Mediterranean 
types. But in the several breeds of 
fowls in the American class we have 
clear bud- types. Thus the Plymouth 
Bock has a rather long and deep yet 
well rounded body; the Wyandotte, a 
chunkier, rather square body. The 
Rhode Island Red standard calls for a 
bodv intermediate between Plymouth 




26 



FIRST LESSORS III 




POULTRY KEEPING. 

Rock and Wyandotte types, and 
though specimens conforming to 
that description have been rare in 
the past, more and more of them 
are seen each year. Bleeders of 
these breeds should carefully dis- 
tinguish the different types. Of the 
other American varieties the Java 
is of extreme Plymouth Rock type, 
while the American Dominique 
does not properly belong to this 
class of fowls. 
Some of the types which in a natural 
classification of the subject should 
follow these cannot be so easily placed 
or grouped, the divisions according to 
shape not "following Standard classifica- 
tion. For this reason it is sometimes 
more difficult to give the type an 
appropriate name. Thus we have in 
the Orpington fowl a more massive 
American type, many of the Orping- 
tons being conspicuously " Cochinny," 
but other differences make it seem 
inadmissible to put the Orpington in 
the American type class, so we must 
put it by itself as: 

4. The Orpington type. 

Intermediate between American and Asiatic types. 
Then we have in the Dorking and the Houdan, two breeds of different classes but with a con- 
spicuous resemblance in shape of body. We make them : 

5. The Dorking- Houdan type. 
The characteristic of the shape in 
these two breeds is the full breast 
and rather long keel, giving the 
body some resemblance to that of 
a duck. This is most pronounced 
in the Dorking, which is the 
larger of the two breeds, and 
often a very massive fowl, but 
is also easily distinguished in 
some Houdans, though other 
seem entirely lackiug in this 
feature. 

6. The Hamburg type. 

7. The Polish type. 
These two types are somewhat 
similar, both small, fine boned, 
very symmetrical and stylish 
looking fowls, very energetic and 
nervous. The Polish more round 
and plump; the Hamburg, in the 
larger specimens, sometimes sug- 
gesting the Minorca or Dorking. 

8. Game types. 
Under this heading we have three s. C. Black Minorca*. 




FIRST LESSONS IX POULTRY KEEPING 



27 



pronounced types: the Pit Game, a compact round bodied, rather fine boned fowl; the 
Exhibition Game, an abnormally elongated type of the Pit Game; the Indian Game, a 
heavy, massive Game type, apparently an intermediate between the Pit Game and 

Asiatic types. 
The breeder will find in every breed many specimens which are not of good breed shape; 
many that approximate it ; a few that are line models of their type. Whatever his breed be 
should study shape, and learn to distinguish shape of body as readily as shape of comb or color. 

Color of Plumage. 

Generally speaking, novices in poultry breeding are not so likely to make mistakes in color as 
In Bhape. Color differences are more pronounced. In white and black are presented extremes 
of color, which are exact opposites, while the most extreme shape types are in reality similar 
\\ pes. Differences in shape resemble rather differences in shades of the same color. Hence we 
find fanciers easily making the broad distinctions between color types, but when they come to 
the liner distinctions meeting the same difficulties they do in working with shape. 

The colors and color combinations in poultry may be classed as follows: 

1. Solidcolors. — White, black, buff and red. 

2. Parii-COlors.— Which 
may be sub-divided ac- 
cording to the char- 
acter of the markings 
into barred, laced, 
penciled, spangled, 
and mottled plumage 
in varieties in which 
one or both sexes 
retain the same colors 
and markings through 
all sections; while in 
varieties where the col- 
ors vary systematically 
in different sections, 
we have combinations, 
>uch as the black-red 
combination seen in the 
i? lack Breasted Red 
Game and the Brown 
Leghorn, the descrip- 
tive name being the 
color description of the 

male. Following the same method of describing the color type we would have :t 
black-white combination in the Silver Duckwing Leghorn and Silver Gray Dorking, 
and a white-red combination in the Red Pyle Game. 

A complete classified description of colors would be too elaborate for this stage of the treat- 
ment of the subject, If indeed it would be of any special use at any time, but it is worth while 
for a breeder to make sure that he distinguishes between the different arrangements of color, 
and clearly understands just what he is trying to do. A good many breeders in the beginning 
pay little attention to the study of markings. They merely see certain color effects without 
knowing how they are obtained, and for want of a proper appreciation of the color qualities of 
their fowls not infrequently make the mistake of breeding from specimens not suitable for their 
purpose or neglecting to use valuable specimens. Color is not to be sought at the sacrifice of 
more substantial qualities, but if it is worth while to breed a variety at all, it certainly is worth 
while to know its color requirements thoroughly, and so be sure that specimens that are good 
in color as well as in other features will not be neglected. So I would urge the novice in any 
breed to study his color description with live models before him, and make sure that he kuows 
just what the colors should be in each section. 




mH 

&'.-•■ 



Barred 1'ly mouth Rocks. 



28 



FIRST LESSONS IN 
Comb and Head 



POULTRY KEEPING. 

Appurtenances. 



Tbere are four principal types of comb: 
(1). The Single Comb, a single, 
upright, serrated comb, in some varieties 
very small, in others medium in size, in 
still others very large, but the general 
type always the same. 

(2). TheRose Comb.— By persons not 
familiar with the technical terms of poul- 
try men, every comb that is not single is 
commonly called a double comb; the rose 
comb is the most commou type. It is a 
thick, fleshy comb, flattened on top, some- 
times small and " neat," as the typical 
Wyandotte comb, larger in the Leghorn 
and Hamburg, and in the Red Cap so 
exaggerated as to seem almost a deform- 
ity. 




White Wyandottes. 



(3). The Pea Comb, a triple comb, looks like three parallel single combs growing 
from the same base. Seen in its best development in the Brahma. 

(4). The Leaf Comb, a forked or branching comb, as in the Houdans and Polish. 
In one way the comb is of no practical importance. In itself it has no actual value. Yet a 
good comb adds much to the appearance of a fowl, and without developing fine combs at the 
expense of other features it is possible by simply avoiding the use for bleeding of birds that 
have poor combs, or combs out of proportion to the size most favored for a variety, to add 
much to the appearance of the flock. 

Wattles.— These are the folds of skin pendant from the lower beak, and of the same 
quality and color as the comb. They vary much in shape and size, and due regard 
should be given to the selection of birds having wattles such as are desired for their 
type. 

Ear Lobes. — The folds of skin just below the ears. It is always desired and gener- 
ally required that they be uniform in color — either red, or white, or creamy white. 
The tendency is to mix red and white. As with all superficial points, while not to be 

given undue importance, color of ear 
lobes should not be neglected. If neg- 
lected for a few years it is very diffi- 
cult to eradicate red from a lobe that 
should be white, or white from one 
that should be red. 

Crests and Beards. — Compara- 
tively few crested fowls are bred. If 
one does breed fowls of that type he 
ought by all means to avoid using birds 
with poor crests, however good in 
other respects, for unless the crests of 
your fowls are ornamental, there is no 
object in having crested fowls. 

Beak and Legs. 

Beak. — In general the shape of the 
beak of a fowl conforms to the struc- 
ture of the fowl, and if one observes 
that the beak of a specimen he con- 
sidered typical in shape of body does 
not conform to the description of the 
typical beak for that kind of fowl, he 




8. C. Rhode I land Red Hen. 



FIM8T LESSOXS IS POULTMY KEEPING. 29 

needs to reconsider his judgment on shape — perhaps to find a new standard upon 
which to base Ids judgment. An elongated and rather weak looking beak is rarely if 
ever found on a plump or stocky bird, while a specimen with a powerful, hawk like 
beak is likely to be too heavily built all through to be symmetrical. The color of the 
beak Is of importance only as it harmonizes with the general color of the fowl, or 
appeals to individual taste. 

Legs and Toes, — In these again we have a good index of the general structure of a 
specimen. If one has a fowl which seems to him good in shape of body, but with poor 
legs— either poor in shape or not smooth, strong and well developed — be needs to recon- 
sider his judgment on shape of body, and in most cases will rind he was wrong. A.8 to 
color of leg, it will be found that whenever a certain color is given the preference by 
fanciers, carelessness in selecting with reference to that color very soon results in a very 
shabby looking lot of fowls. 
1 have gone into the above points at more length than I had intended when the lessons for 
tins year were first mapped out, because within a few weeks it has been very pointedly brought 
to my notice that a very great many beginners who are most interested in the "practical" 
aspect* of mating, need to be admonished not to neglect appearances. So I have tried by reitera- 
tion in a little different form to give special emphasis to some general points which every 
breeder of thoroughbred fowls ought to give some consideration. By giving a little attention 
to these points a breeder will save himself disappointment in the coming seasons when he knows 
enough about the finer qualities of the varieties he breeds to want to select more closely with 
reference to them. The points I have indicated are points I think anyone can distinguish and 
appreciate. (Jiving them consideration simply means guarding against serious faults. A good 
many new breeders need to understand that while it would be not at all to their advantage to 
go to the extreme in fancy points, .it is just as much to their disadvantage to neglect them 
altogether. Indeed, unless one gives reasonable attention to the looks of his fowls he loses half 
the satisfaction of producing good ones, though producing only for eggs and meat. 

Mating White Varieties. 

The impression is general among breeders not producing stock for competition and among 
beginners that white is easy to reproduce. This is true of the white commonly produced by such 
breeders, but not of such a pure silvery white as the fancier works for. The ordinary white 
fowl compares with a good white fowl about as a piece of unbleached muslin does with a piece 
that is thoroughly bleached and white. 

The common color faults of white fowls are yellow distributed through the plumage, giving 
it a creamy appearance in all sections, and sometimes becoming very brassy looking on the 
hacks of the males; ami ticks or splotches of foreign color, as black or red occurring irregularly 
in the plumage. Very few fowls are absolutely free from these faults. Ticks or splotches are 
most apt to occur in the specimens with whitest plumage, while creaminess is correlative 
with the yellow legs, beak, and skin required in all the popular white varieties. 

While the Standard calls for an absolutely white fowl, many of the best breeders think it 
better to allow a little creamy color throughout the plumage rather than take the lighter faded 
yellow skin and legs seen on most very white birds. So in mating his white fowls the beginner 
i* wisest who does not try to get white regardless of other matters, but avoids pronounced 
brassiness and creaminess, and foreign color in the still' feathers where it canuot be removed 
without disfiguring a bird. 

In the white varieties not having yellow legs and skin creaminess and brassiness are not so 
prevalent, but — as would be expected — there is likely to be a great deal more ticking and 
blotches of the black, red, or brown. 

Hating Black Varieties. 

In black again we have a so-called solid color as difficult to produce to perfection as any 
of the color combinations. The black oftenest seen is a dull brownish black. The black 
desired is a jet black with a greenish sheen. The black oftenest obtained by fanciers trying to 



SO FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

get the required color is a jet black with purple barring. This comes from an excess of color, 
and results generally from too strong color matings. The mating of two jet black specimens 
with fine green sheen is apt to bring the objectionable purple bars. So the expert fancier 
breeding olack fowls avoids mating the finest plumaged birds of either sex with equally fine 
colored specimens of the other sex. With a male perfect (approximately) in color he mates 
females that, without being pronouncedly brownish, show a tendency to that color. Similarly 
with his finest females he uses a male with a little less strength of color. 

Fine specimens having the purple barring are used in breeding with birds very poor in color 
with black weak and showing quite brown and dull. They are also used with birds of correct 
color. In the first case only a small proportion of the progeny is likely to come good in color, 
for uniformity and soundness of color do not result quickly from such extreme matings. In 
the mating of a bird with an excess of color with one of standard color some very fine speci- 
mens are sometimes produced, though, naturally, a considerable part of the progeny shows the 
purple bars. 

Mating Buff Varieties. 

A solid golden buff fowl is one of the most beautiful in plumage, and the perfection of color in 
buff fowls is most difficult to obtain. From the most carefully selected matings a proportion of 
chicks come that as they grow up show white or black in wings and tails, or red across the 
shoulders and backs of males, uneven mottling of different shades of buff throughout the plum- 
age, different shades of buff in different sections. The proportion of such chicks if often dis- 
couraging to the beginner, but by persistently mating from the best specimens he can procure 
or afford to buy, he in time can develop a line of buffs that will give him a very satisfactory 
proportion of birds as good as the best. 

Tn mating buff fowls keep as near as possible to the shade of buff you are trying to get. Good 
buff being so very scarce — even yet— it follows that most matings will be of males a little dark 
with females a little light, or vice versa; but in making these necessary compensation matings 
keep as near the standard color as you can, and if you have fowls of both sexes of standard 
color, and in other respects suitable to mate together, by all means make such a mating if only 
of a single male and female. 

In breeding for buff more perhaps than in working with any other surface color, undercolor 
is of great importance. In saying this I do not wish to be understood as suggesting a neglect of 
undercolor in other varieties, but I know of no other color in which surface faults may be over- 
looked safely and reliance placed on sound undercolor to work the defects out of the surface lo 
the same extent as in buff. Get the best undercolor possible, a buff, but a little lighter in shade 
and duller than the surface color. In undercolor, though, take a bird that is almost white, if 
good in surface color, rather than one that has a bluish or slaty smudge or bar in the under- 
color, for birds with such undercolor are apt to give you too much black in wings and tails, and 
often give a great deal of lacing and ticking of black in the surface color of their progeny. 

In surface, color a little white is less tolerable than a little black — appearing in mealiness in 
flights and tail feathers, but in undercolor black should not be tolerated. 

Hating Red Varieties. 

In general what has been said of mating buff varieties applies to reds, though the ideas of 
breeders of red varieties do not yet agree as do those of breeders of buffs, and therefore their 
methods of mating are not so generally alike, and the fact that black is admitted in the wings 
and tails, and to some extent in the hackle, makes the use of birds with smutty undercolor per- 
haps a little less risky than in breeding buff color. The tendency in the development of the 
reds, however, has been for the elimination of black and toward making it a solid colored bird. 
The R. I. Red standard in fact simply recognizes and permits markings which in the buff breeds 
were never treated as leniently in the Standard as they were in practice. It is because the 
tendency in Reds seems unmistakably toward uniform color and the final elimination of black, 
and because this tendency makes the breeders follow the methods of breeders of buff fowls that 
J have taken the liberty of classing red as a solid color, though it is not strictly so in fact. 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 31 

Mating Barred Varieties. 

In cooiliering the mating of Barred varieties, we will take up the Barred Plymouth Book as 

the representative of this Color type known everywhere, and indeed the only one in which thOSfl 
Ntlldyfog these lessons are likely to be interested. 

The Standard requires that the plumage of males and females shall be of the same uniform 
color throughout! The exact description of tins color has caused no end of controversy. Some 
affirm that it is a black bar on a white ground, but looks blue. Others say the ground color Is 
-ravish or bluish white with the darker bars blue. Breeders agreeing on color often disagree 
ibout proper description of it. The amateur, however, need not puzzle himself about their 
differences on that point. On the things that trouble him most in the appearance of his fowls, 
the breeders are pretty well in agreement— though they differ again as to the best method of 
getting what they want. 

The beauty of Barred Plymouth Rock color is in the character of the bars. They should be 
parallel— that is, straight across the feather, not breaking at the quill, and not crescentric in 
form, and they should be quite sharply defined. The ground color should be clean, and the 
dark bar should be free from greenish or brownish tinge. 

Some of the faults indicated in the last paragraph are found in some degree in nearly all 
Barred Plymouth Rocks. It is 1 only by using specimens as free as possible from them that a 
breeder succeeds in getting plumage on his fowls that makes them really attractive, and it is 
because beginners so seldom look sharply after these faults that the first few years of work with 
Barred Rocks so often results in striking deterioration from the quality of the original stock 
regardless of the system of mating used. 

The Two Systems of Mating. 

The average beginner — I might go further and say ninety-nine in every hundred persons 
who begin the breeding of Barred Plymouth Rocks accept off-hand the principle set forth by 
the advocates of mating standard male and female to produce standard colored progeny of both 
sexes. The advocates of single matings insist that that system should be followed because it is 
rii, r ht in principle. So the beginner follows it — for a while. 

Now because I went through all that, and spent a good deal of money finding out for myself 
that the other way was better, and because I know so many of the best breeders use double 
matings, and so few do not; in this lesson I am going to discuss the single mating system with 
the remark that if one wants to try it he should be very sure that the birds he begins with are 
line bred that way. 

The Double Mating of Barred Rocks. 

This system calls for two distinct lines of stock — one to produce standard males, the other 
to produce standard females. A breeder who wants to exhibit and sell Barred Rocks to a 
general trade must mate both ways. One who likes Barred Plymouth Rocks, and can keep 
only one mating, can breed either a cockerel or a pullet line and produce hice stock and have a 
>t >ck that looks as well in his yards as anyone's — for be it remembered the specimens mated in 
the -how room for exhibition are not, as a rule, mated anywhere else. 

Very early in the h^tory of the Barred Rock breeders were worried by the tendency of the 
females to run dark, and of the males from the same mating to run light in color. Final I \ 
someone (I believe it was judge II. B. May, of Xatick, Mass.,) hit upon the plan of, a Bpeeial 
mating for each sex. The results were so satisfactory that the idea was gradually taken u] 
and the plan followed so generally and systematically that the leading stocks of Barred Rocks 
in the country are now, with few exceptions, carefully line bred for many years with distinct 
male and female lines. 

The special mating to produce males takes a male of standard or exhibition color and 
mates him with females of the male line, that is, females bred as he Is bred. Such female- 
considerably darker than the females seen in the shows, but must be well and strongly barred. 
From this mating come males the color of the sire; females the color of the dam. 



32 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

The special mating to produce females mates with exhibition females cockerels of the- 
female line. These males are lighter colored than the females, sometimes very light in color, 
but always must be distinctly barred. Males from such matings follow, as a rule, the color of 
the sire ; females the color of the dam. 

The breeder of Barred Rocks who would follow this system of breeding should buy all his 
stock from one breeder, and have him make the matings. The common practice of beginners 
buying a pen or trio from one breeder, and a pen or trio from another breeder, and changing 
the males to avoid inbreeding is responsible for a great deal of unsatisfactory results in all 
varieties, but in none is the risk greater than in Barred Rocks. Until one knows his own stock 
and knows how it is bred, it is better to rely on the breeder of his original stock for the first 
mating, and, if possible, to get his advice and buy stock needed for future matings from him 
until one has reason to think he can go it alone. 

Undercolor. 

The Standard requires that the barring on the feathers of the Barred Rock extend the entire 
length of the feather, right down to the skin. The uuderbarring need not be as distinct as on 
the surface, but should be clearly discernible. Some advanced breeders get underbarring so 
strong that it makes a smutty surface, but the beginner errs oftener in the other direction. 

Mating Light Brahmas. 

In the Light Brahma, Light Brahma Bantam, and Columbian Wyandotte, we have a color 
combination, perhaps best described as white with black points — that is, the white greatly pre- 
dominates in the surface color, the black appearing only in a few sections, i. e., in hackle, wings 
and tail. 

In the hackle the black is in the form of a heavy black stripe in the middle of the feather. 

In the tail the stiff main tail feathers should be solid black; the sickles and larger coverts 
Idack, while the lesser coverts are black edged with white. The coverts are the soft somewhat 
curling secondary feathers of the tail, larger next the main feathers, and gradually merging into 
the plumage of the back and saddle. 

In the wings the largest primary or flight feathers are in the best specimens black with a 
narrow edge of white at the lower edge of the feather. The secondary feathers should have 
enough of the lower web of each white to make the folded wing white. 

The. undercolor should be white or bluish white, and it is desirable that sections that are 
white on the surface should be white or nearly white in undercolor except near their juncture 
with a color section containing black in surface color, where a darker undercolor is not objec- 
tionable. 

The problem in mating for this color combination is to keep the surface colors in their allotted 
places as intense and as clean as possible. As in all color combinations, the tendency is for the 
colors to run together. While no double mating system such as is used for Barred Plymouth 
Rocks is employed, Light Brahma matings generally have to be compensation matings, a stand- 
ard male with a female not so intense in black sections, and females very strong in color with 
males a trifle weak. Two birds that are both rather dark in undercolor, if mated together, gen- 
erally give chicks with much splashing, mottling, and ticking of black in surfaces that should 
be white. 

Mating Silver Penciled Varieties. 

In all the varieties so far considered the male and female are as nearly identical in color and 
markings in every section as the art of the breeder can make them. We now take up a number 
of varieties in whicli the male and the female are not the same color: First, we consider the 
silver penciled varieties— the Dark Brahma and the Silver Penciled Wyandotte — which are 
practically the same in color. 

The males are black, or black slightly frosted with white, in plumage of breast and body, 
white on the back and wing bows, white with black striping in hackle and saddle feathers, 
while the stiff wing and tail feathers are the same as in the Light Brahma, except that the wing 
coverts are black and make the black bar across the wing when folded. This gives us the 
'•black-white" color combination. 



FUiST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 
The females are like the males in color only in the hackle. The prevailing color of the female 
U a light gray with distinct dark Hues of penciling following the outlines of the feather, the 

several lines of penciling on each feather making a completely penciled surface. The main tail 
feathers are black, ami the stitl* feathers of the wing are Mack ami a penciled gray instead of 
black and white, as in the wing of the male. 

The difficulties in breeding this combination are to get (dean colors and distinct penciling in 
all sections in the females, and to get good black breasts in the males, and get these from the 
Bame matings. One of the best of our breeders who breeds both these varieties gets his beet 
results from well penciled females mated with males as near Standard color as possible, ami 
known to be from well penciled hens. Such a male may have some '-frosting" of white in the 
black of the breast and body, which is a fault in the exhibition pen, but not so much so in the 
breeding pen. The males with solid black breasts are apt to produce females that are too dark 
ami not well laced. 

The fault in quality of color most necessary to guard against is a brownish tinge in the females, 
ami red or brown in the cape or back of the male. 

Hating Golden Penciled Varieties. 

In these two varieties with ''Partridge" markings constitute one type of the black-red color 
combination ; these are the Partridge Cochin and the Partridge Wyandotte, in which the mark- 
ings are similar to those of the Dark Brahma and Silver Penciled Wyandotte. 

The males of both varieties are red where the males of the silver penciled varieties are white. 
The females of the "Partridge" varieties have red or redish brown plumage with darker brov\ it. 
penciling!). 

The rules for mating are the same. Some breeders use double matings, making two distinct 
lines as in double matings of Barred Plymouth Pock*. Whether the practice will become general, 
remains to be seen. 

fl flating Silver Laced Varieties. 

There are three of these: the Silver Paced Wyandotte, the Silver Polish, and the Silver 
Sebright Bantam. Though not alike in all sections they have a general resemblance. The con- 
spicuous dill'erence between them and the type we have called the black-white type, is that in 
the-e varieties the plumage of the breast and body has the same markings in both males and 
females. The necks, backs, and tails of the males of the Wyandotte and Polish are not much 
different from those of the silver penciled varieties, but in the Bantam the markings ate like the 
lien throughout. 

We will consider only the Wyandotte in this lesson. Originally the Silver Laced Wyandotte 
had plumage with such a very wide lacing of black that the white eeuters were so small that it 
seemed more appropriate to consider the white as a mark on the black rather than the black a 
lacing around the White. Of late years, however, there has been a change to a more " open" 
center, making a different looking and very much handsomer fowl. What puzzles the breeder 
is to ge$ these lacings uniform all over the female and in the laced sections of the male. To 
accomplish this the double mating system seems to be preferred by our most successful breed- 
ers, two distinct lines being bred as with the Barred Itoek, though it can hardly be said that the 
lines are as well established as in the Rocks. The type of Silver Wyandotte color has changed 
so much that we must regard the ideas of breeders as in a transition stage, and that being the 
••ase I would rather advise a reader handling that variety to either find out what lines bis stork 
has been bred on, and follow same lines, or supply himself with all the literature on mating the 
variety he can get, and after deciding what line he wants to follow in mating, begin to build t:ie 
stock on that line, drawing for new blood as needed on some one breeder following the same 
line. 

Mating Golden Laced Varieties. 

Here we have the three varieties di-cussed above, each duplicated in its own breed with a 
variety having a golden or bay ground color of plumage instead of white, as in the Silvers. 
With the change of color, the principles and rules of mating are the same. 

In popularity too, the Golden Wyandottes, Polish, and Sebright Pantams have relatively 
much the same positions as the Silvers. None of the laced varieties are as yet very extcn-dvely 



34 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

bred. Like the penciled varieties described above, they have been too difficult for the average 
breeder, btrt as knowledge of breeding increases there is more and more disposition to take up 
the breeds that have been let alone because they were difficult, and these breeds become more 
and more popular. 

Mating Brown Leghorns. 

The Brown Leghorn male and the Partridge Cochin male are very like in color, but the 
females are quite different. The Partridge Cochin female is required to be uniform in color 
throughout. The Brown Leghorn female has a yellow neck with black stripe, a light brown 
back so very finely penciled as to produce an effect quite different from the heavy distinct pen- 
ciling of the Cochin and Wyandotte. The breast is salmon colored, the body a light brown, the 
tail black with coverts penciled as is the plumage of the back, the wings a combination of slaty 
brown and light brown disposed as are the black and white in the wing of the Light Brahma. 

To produce males and females so different, the double mating system is generally used, the 
-exhibition males being bred from exhibition males mated with females of the same line of breed- 
ing. Such females are, as a rule, much too dark for exhibition, and not nearly as handsome as 
the exhibition females. The exhibition females are produced from exhibition females mated to 
males that are not merely of the same line of breeding, but known to be the sons of exhibition 
females of the highest merit. 

The exhibition male has, or should have, (he does not always) his hackle and saddle well 
striped with black, but no striping at all is wanted in the saddle of the pullet breeding male, 
and provided a stripe is present in his hackle, the breeder is not disposed to be overparticular 
about the kind of stripe. These pullet breeding males are much lighter in color, a light orange 
■where the others are red. They are handsome birds, but will not often compare for depth and 
brilliance of color with the males of the exhibition type. 



The Literature of Mating Fowls. 

1 have given quite briefly, statements about color matings of fowls most commonly bred. 
What has-been given, while most elementary in scope, will help a good many breeders, will 
Jkeep them from getting too far out of the way in their breeding operations. A full discussion 
•of the mating of any single variety will easily take a long article. As a matter of fact there are 
few, if any, special articles that are exhaustive, complete, and leaving nothing unsaid. So to 
get at all there is known about the breed or variety in which he is interested, one has to sys- 
tematically collect articles, booklets, and books in which it is treated. These vary greatly in 
their character. Some give minute descriptions of fowls point by point, some are largely his- 
forical, some are devoted almost entirely to mating, some combine all these features. Some- 
times one writer in an article that is on the whole very unsatisfactory brings out valuable points 
not noticed by the writer of a better and much more complete article. 

Thus we must gather up our information little by little, remembering all the time that as we 
grow in our knowledge of a breed we can again and again go back to the articles we have read , 
,nnd in the light of our added knowledge discover in them information we had not found at any 
previous reading. Because this is so it is good for every breeder to collect as much as he can 
of the literature pertaining to his breed, and frequently take a spare hour or two to review and 
think it over. 

With regard to the purchase of books, which in cases where the literature of a breed or 
variety is unusually large, might mean an outlay of several dollars, if one is going to breed on a 
■on-iderable scale with the idea of selling stock, it is worth his while to get everything he can 
on his subject, even though some of the books contain comparatively little that seems of value 
to him, and therefore not worth their price considered as books. That, however, is not the 
way to look at it. If I buy a book for a dollar that is compared with some other book treating 
on the subject worth not more than ten eeuts, still if it gives me one item of useful information 
I had not before, it is worth the monev. 



Fill ST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEF. TING. 35 



LESSON V. 



Hatching Chicks With Hens. 



WITHOUT entering here into a discussion of the relative merits and advantages of 
artificial and natural systems of incubation, I want to state first of all that many 
of those who do uot get satisfactory results by natural methods, and do get much 
better results by artificial methods would have had much better results than they 
did by natural methods if they had been as careful to make conditions right for the hens to 
<io their best, as they try to be with the incubators. 

The cost of an Incubator, the value of the eggs required to fill it, and the fact that anything 
going wrong with the machine may mean a total loss of the eggs put into the machine, and of 
three weeks time, makes operators of incubators appreciate the importance of doing all in 
their power to make conditions for a good hatch. But the fact that a hen left entirely to 
her>elf may bring off a good hatch, and the fact that hens can be put off with very indifferent 
hatching accommodations, leads many poultry keepers' to do their hatching with hens under 
conditions not favorable to good hatching. 

••Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well." If one is going to hatch with hens he 
should, as far as po>sil>le, give the hens a chance. He should go beyond this, and seek to 
avoid all things which operate against good hatching with hens. 

Where to Set the Hens. 

sating Hens in Begular Poultry Houses.— The quarters for sitting hens should be com- 
fortable and convenient to work in. If possible such a house or pen as is used for laying and 
breeding stock should be used for the sitting hens. About the only changes desirable are the 
removal of unnecessary fixtures, and, if the place is very brightly lighted, some darkening of 
the windows. 

The floor should be cleaned, all litter and manure removed, and, if the floor is of earth, it 
should be forked over, to give as clean a surface as possible. 

While access to a yard is not absolutely necessary, I consider it important; for my experi- 
ence has been that, on the whole, hatches were better, chickens more thrifty, and hens kept 
in better condition when they were able to get outdoors every time they came ofi' the nest. 

If ne>ts are placed only on the floor, ranged around the walls, a pen will accommodate about 
the same number of sitters as it will of layers. It can be used for a few more than it is 
advisable to put in it for laying, but to keep down the work of caring for the sitters it is best 
not to crowd them too much. 

Making Special Quarters for Sitting Hens.— It no quarters like those used for other stock- 
can lie taken for hatching purposes, and some other arrangement has to be made, the first con- 
sideration ii to see that it provides freedom from disturbance, and that it is not a place in which 



36 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

it will be inconvenient to care for the luns. Too many of the places improvised for sitting hens 
are faulty in these particulars, and as a result the hens may get too much attention from others 
and too little from the keeper. 

There are often rooms, or sheds, or corners in large buildings that can be partitioned off that, 
as far as indoor accommodations go, are just as good as quarters in a poultry house, but often 
such quarters do not admit of letting the hens out doors during incubation, and in case it is 
possible to make arrangements that will give the hens a daily outing that ought by all means to 
be done. 

It is also important in taking a place sometimes used for other purposes for sitting hens, not 
to continue its use for other purposes if that would at all interfere with the proper treatment of 
the hens while incubating. 

Individual Compartments for Sitting Hens— My experience in usiug a separate small coop 
for each sitter never went beyond the experimental stage, because I never had average hatches 
that way that made it seem worth while to continue any of the numerous arrangements of this 
kind that I have tried. The bens confined to nests and to very small runs when off the nest 
have always been restless, and good hatches under such conditions have, with me, been rare. 

The Unit of Nest Boxes for Sitting Hens. 

The single nest box for a sitting hen, shown in the accompany- 
ing cut, is so simple and works so well that it seems to me not 
necessary to discuss other possible forms of nest receptacles; 
barrels, half barrels, and boxes in almost endless variety have 
been used, but for economy of material and room, combined 
with convenience, 1 have never seen anything that approached] 
a system of nests in which this is used as the unit. 

The most convenient dimensions for nests for medium sized 
hens are 12 x 14 in. on the ground, and 14 in. high, 12 in. high 
will answer, but such low nests are not as convenient for hand- 
but I would not advise anyone 
Make the small 
make 




Single Nest Box for Sitting Hen, 
ling the hens. For small hens 12 x 12 on the ground will do 
cutting up lumber for nest boxes to make them smaller than 12 x 14 x 14 in 
nests only in case you can use a few of them and have odds and ends of lumber that wi 



them, but would not make the larger size. For large hens make nests up to 16 x 16 x 16 in 
size, that size making a roomy nest for the largest Brahma hens. Note that very much of the 
trouble with large hens breaking eggs is due to their not having room to turn in the nest. 

This nest may be made either with or without a. bottom. For single nests it is advisable to 
have a bottom, because the nest is so light that it is easily moved out of position. In that case 
if the nest is in the box the eggs are not disturbed, but if the nest box is simply a cover over a 
nest built on the ground the eggs may be injured. Where double or triple nests are used, the 
weight and the binding of the earth produced by shaping a nest in it when the box is in posi- 
tion, hold the nest box so firmly that it is not easily displaced, and there is no need of a bottom 
unless it is thought advisable to have nest boxes that can be moved with the hens in them if 
desired. 

The narrow strip at the bottom of the front of the box should be 3 to 4 in. wide according to 
the height of the box. 

With nest boxes of this construction a hen cannot jump down on the eggs as she may if set in 
a barrel or half barrel, or box open at the tdp, while it is very much easier to inspect the nest 
when the hen is on by simply putting a hand under the hen and lifting her body enough to let 
you see the eggs. She is disturbed but little by this, when she would be much annoyed by 
being lifted off to let the attendant see the eggs from above. 

The Beginning of a System of Nest Boxes. 
In the double nest box shown in the illustration on the next page, we have the beginning of a 
system of nests based on the unit just described. This box also has a movable front which can 
be used to confine the hens to the nests. I have sometimes made nests in sets of three or four, 
but for my own use prefer to have them in pairs, because more easily handled and generally 
fitting better into spaces available. 



FlUsr l.i:sso\s IN POULTRY. KEEPING. 87 

Placing Nests for Sitters in Tiers. 

When it is desired to set many more hens in B room th:m can he accommodated with costs <>n 
the floor, poultrymen sometimes build the nests in tiers, two, three, or more tiers high, and 
Instead of a loose front, like that shown in the illustration of the double nest, make a slat ( lath I 
front, hinged to the strip at the bottom of the front of the nest, and either supported by a 
bracket below or by a Btring or hook from ahove, so that when open it makes a shelf for hens 
to _■> on when leaving and entering the nest. 

This arrangement of nests may be made with the nests built in large sections, each the full 
height of the combined tiers, or with each small section of two, three, or four nests independent 
of the others and combining like the sections in a sectional hook case. When constructed in 
this way the nests must, of course, have wooden hottoms. 

How to Make a Nest. 

In " Neat Box With a Bottom the nest may he made of earth covered with fine straw 
or hay, or of straw or hay alone. The uest ou a hase of earth is usually more satisfactory if 
properly shaped ; if not properly shaped at the start, hens are more likely to hreak eggs and 
crush chicks in it than in a nest of all hay or straw, hecause the latter will improve in shape 
as a result of the movements of the hen, while the earth hase formed once, there is no altera- 
tion in its form. 

To make the hase of earth for the nest: Take a shovelful of fine loam, not wet, but moist; 
put it in the nest hox, and with the hand make a hollow nest, working the earth up to the 

corners and around the sides, hut leaving the 
^2 I " _ - . I bottom of the nest, while a little hollow, not so 

much so that eggs will roll to the middle. Now, 
after having worked the earth quite firm and smooth 
with the palm of the hand,' take a good handful of 
soft hay or straw — not too long — say six or eight 
inches long, and make the nest of it, distributing if 
evenly over the earth base, and working with the 
hand until you have it smooth and well pressed down. 
It does not take as long to do this as to tell about 
it. If it is not well done the hen will undertake to 
do it herself with the eggs in the nest, and the result 
Double Nat Box for Si/ters. is apt to be hard on the eggs and also on the temper 

a — Wooden latcll to hold front in place. f the keeper. 

When a Nest is Made Without Earth in the hox, more nest material is used ; it must be 
much more carefully shaped, and it does not hold the shape given it as well — which is or is not 
a fault according as the work was well or badly done. 

To Make a Nest on an Earth Floor the. box is placed in position and the earth shaped just 
as if earth had been put into the box. All lumps of earth must be broken fine, and all stones 
or Urge gravel must be removed. Then the nesting material must be put in as described 
above. 

A Few Observations on Nest Materials, — Hay and straw, cut short, do not make good 
nests, because the material works about, and does not retain the shape given it. 

Excelsior makes a very good nesting material. 

Waste tobacco leaves and stems make good nest material, whether used with other material 
to keep lice out, or used alone. 

Nests of earth without other material, I have never found satisfactory. True, hens that steal 
their nests and make such nests in them sometimes do well, but oftener they break eggs in them, 
just as hens do in any poorly formed nest, and a good proportion of the stolen nests are poorly 
formed. A hen by no means always makes a good nest, and seeing that the nest is a good one 
is one way in which a poultryman can improve on nature. 




38 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

Selection of Sitting Hens. 

Because not all hens that have the disposition to incubate make good sitters, there must be u 
judicious selection of the hens to be used for hatching, Otherwise, good hatches will not be as. 
frequent as they should — to say nothing of the difference in the work of handling good and 
poor sitters. 

While no rule will apply universally, I think it will be found to be the general rule that 
rather small heus make the best sitters, but large hens the best mothers. The superiority of the 
small hen as a sitter is not due altogether to her light weight, and the greater danger of a 
large hen breaking eggs — particularly when, as is too often the case, the large hen is set in a 
nest none too large for a small one. The great superiority of the small hen in incubation is 
that she is, as a rule, more warm blooded, generates heat more rapidly* When it comes to 
brooding the chicks, her small size and short plumage handicap her, and the chicks quickly 
reach such a stage of growth that she is too small a brooder for the chicks she hatched, and, 
unless the weather is very mild her chicks cease to thrive. 

The small hen often has the objectionable trait of being wild and nervous, not docile and 
easily handled as a sitter should be. This fault can generally be overcome by judicious hand- 
ling. While I do not think it is as necessary as some authorities on poultry keeping say, to 
" be sure your hen wants to sit" before you give her the eggs you want her to incubate, I 
do consider it very necessary to be sure your hen will allow herself to be handled before you 
set her. Hens that are unmanageable provoke tempers that are out of place among sitting 
hens, and the result is likely to be unsatisfactory. Be sure then, that the broody hen will 
allow herself to be handled, by dusk or dark, if not by daylight. 

Temperature of Hens.— That the temperatures of heas vary, and that hens that seem very 
hot, generally make the best hatches, is, I believe, agreed among poultry keepers who have 
closely observed conditions of hatching by natural methods. The difference in temperatures- 
is apparent to the touch if hens are so handled that the palm of the hand comes in contact 
with the body of the hen, which is generally partially stripped of feathers when she begins to 
incubate. If, in handling several hens, you find one that seems to have perceptibly less heat 
than the others, do not use her; or, if you use her, watch her eggs and chicks and you wjll 
nearly always find her a poor hatcher and a poor mother. Some poultrymen who hatch large 
numbers of chicks with hens, overcome the effect of using these low temperature hens for 
sitters by changing them from nest to nest, so that a low temperature hen will not be likely 
to be on the same eggs for more than a day at a time, and perhaps not for more than one day 
during the entire period of incubation. Under ordinary circumstances, however, I think it is 
better to reject low temperature hens when selecting sitters, for with no more hens sitting at 
one time than on the ordinary plant where hatching is by natural methods, it is an advantage to 
have the hens keep the same nests. 

When and How to Set Hens. 

When a hen is not to sit in the nest she has been laying in, it is best that she should be moved 
after dark. It is not in all cases necessary to do so, but it will be fount* that a much larger pro- 
portion of the hens will settle down quietly in their new quarters if moved after dark, and their 
nests kept darkened until they are let out to feed just before dark the next evening. 

If there are many hens to be moved, and they have to be moved some distance, it is a good 
idea to have a coop to move them in, but if only a few hens at a time, and no great distance, . 
take one hen under each arm and carry them. Whether carried separately by hand or in coops,, 
the hens should be handled gently and not excited. 

A novice in handling sitting hens may find it better to keep them on nest eggs for a few day* 
while breaking them and himself in. After one is sure of his steps it saves time to have the 
eggs that are to be incubated in the nests when the hens are moved to them. 

Except with the quietest hens it is necessary to close the nests after the hens are put on them, 
and advisable to darken them. When I use a single open nest I put a wide board in front of it. 
For darkening nests, like that in the second illustration, we use an old grain sack. With the 
nests darkened, and the place quiet, the hens will nearly always settle down to business. 



FIJiST LESSONS J\ POULTXX KEEPING. 39 

About Eggs For Hatching. 

The eggs intended to be incubated should be kept in a dry place at a rather cool temperature, 
Bay id to .")(> decrees. 

It is not advisable to keep them longer than two weeks before being incubated, and the fresher 
they are when set the better chances of a good hatch and strong chicks. 

It is not necessary to turn eggs while kept in this way, nor does the position of the egg„ 
whether on the side or on an end make any difference. 

( >nly well formed eggs with good strong shells should be set. A great deal of the breakage of, 
eggs of-which people using hens for hatching complain is of thin shelled and imperfect eggs. 
There Is less breakage of such eggs in incubators than under hens, but it is doubtful whether 
there is any real gain in hatching them. 

When eggs are bought outside and delivered by rail or wagon they should be rested for a day 
before being placed under hens. This is to allow the contents of the egg, sometimes mud* 
>liaken up iu transit, to regain their normal condition. 

When setting such eggs it is a good plan to divide each sitting, and under each hen used plan* 
some of the boughten and some of one's own eggs. This gives a better opportunity to detei- 
mine whether a poor hatch is due to poor eggs or to some cause for which the party from whoiib 
they were purchased is not in any way responsible. 

Number Of Eggs t<> a I fen. — This must depend on the season, and on the size of the hen.. 
The usual Dumber for an average sized hen in the spring is thirteen. The same hen set in 
winter should not be given more than eleven. After the middle of May she would generally 
take care of fifteen average eggs. 

If one is in any doubt as to how many eggs he-ought to give a hen he should err on the safe 
side and give a number he is sure is not too large, for when too many eggs are given a hea 
every egg in the lot is likely to be somewhat chilled at some period of incubation. 

Food For Sitting hens. 

Nothing could be simpler and easier than the feeding of sitting hens. All they need is whole 
corn and water. Though I have tried other rations the hens have never seemed to me either to 
keep in as good condition or to hatch as well as when fed on corn alone. The condition of the 
hen is not at this time normal. She needs food that will generate in her body heat to be trans- 
mitted to her eggs, and whole corn seems to be the perfect food for the sitting hen. She can 
eat a crop full in a few minutes. Being inactive, she digests it slowly, can get along on one 
meal a day, and I have had a good many hens that would leave the nest to feed only every other 
day, yet keep in good condition and make good hatches. 

Care of Sitting liens. 

Assuming that the hens when set were confined to the nests, and they should be unless it is- 
certain that they will not leave them, (some hens are so quiet that there is practically no doubt 
that they can be set anywhere, and from the first be trusted to come off to feed and go right 
l»ack of their own accord), they should have an opportunity to leave the nest within twenty- 
four hours after being set, and if they do not come off of their own accord should be taken oft", 
for if they do not leave the nest and void their excrement now, they are almost certain to foul 
the nests before the corresponding time on the following day, and during the first days of incu- 
bation the change of conditions and food often produce a disturbance of the bowels, and for 
iwhile some hens will be loose and unable to retain the excrement as long as they will later. 
Hence, even if a hen is not hungry, and eats little or nothing, it is important to have her ofl' the 
nest daily at first. 

Hens that are handled without any trouble may be let off the nests at any time convenient for 
the attendant. With hens that are inclined to be shy, the easiest way to break them to return 
promptly to the nest In a strange place is to let them off just long enough before dark to give 
them time to feed. They will often return to the nest quietly at this time, when if let off early 
in the day they would make a great fuss, and if handled roughly give the business up altogether. 
At dusk hens that do not go back of their own accord are more easily caught, and settle down, 
quietly when retQrned to the nest. 



40 FIB ST LESSONS IN FOUL THY REEFING. 

Having returned to her nest once of her own accord, a hen may, as a rule, be allowed to 
leave it at any time convenient for the attendant, and unless there is something wrong with the 
hen or the nest, will generally go back withiu fifteen or twenty minutes, which is about as 
long as it is safe to have the eggs uncovered in cold or very cool weather. On bright warm 
days hens may remain off the nest half an hour to an hour without the eggs being any the worse 
for it. Indeed, the general rule is that the colder blooded hens stick closest to the nests while 
the hot blooded ones give so much heat to their eggs that the nest gets uncomfortably warm 
and they leave it for their own comfort, and instinct seems to prompt them to let their e«vs 
cool longer than the cold blooded hen does. 

When Manx, Sitters are in the Same Boom it might cause trouble to release them all 
at once, especially if they came from different flocks. There are several ways of keeping things 
working smoothly. 

If the hens were all set at the same time, and all, or any considerable part of them, are so shv 
that it is advisable to let them off late in the day> the attendant can watch them while off, and 
interfere if they go to fighting. If he does not wish to watch them daily he can, withiu a few 
• lays, arrange to let them off at different times in pairs or small squads, leaving the more 
troublesome ones to the last. 

If, as is the case on most small plants, the hens set in a pen are set a few at a time, they are 
broken to return to the nest in the order in which they are set, and when new hens are 
set the others can be released at intervals earlier in the day. 

On a larger scale of operations, if several rooms or pens are required for sitters, they can 
be prepared at the same time, a few hens set in each, then a few more, and so on until filled. 
This admits of gradually breaking in a large number of sitters to the desired routine without 
having to watch them when off the nests. Thus it is possible to establish a routine of releas- 
ing sitters which will enable one to do all the work of caring for them as he goes about his 
other work, yet take so little time for it that he never feels it as a burden — in fact, hardly 
notices it. 

The routine just described will apply when up to twenty or twenty-five hens are sitting in 
the same place, but with larger numbers together, as there often are when nests are several 
titers high, it becomes necessary to let many hens off at the same time, watch them to some 
extent while off, and return them to the nests after a sufficient time off has been given them. 

Importance of Confining Hens to Nests. 

I have always had better hatches, on the whole, when I kept nests closed except when the 
hens were off for food, etc. By doing so, one is sure that no nest is uncovered too long, and no 
serious interference of hens going on without his knowledge. Making this the rule insures 
against the most common causes of spoiled eggs. It is one of the little things that it pays to do, 
and the rule should be broken only in emergencies. 

Keeping Sitting Hens' Quarters Clean. 

General Cleanliness.— The dung of the sitting hen has a peculiarly strong and offensive 
odor, hence the importance of removing it daily. If it is not removed promptly from a pen in 
which there are many hens sitting the place soon gets very dirty. When hens are set in tiers, 
many in a small room, some poultry keepers as they watch them remove the dung, which is 
voided in large lumps, at once. If they did not do this the floor would soon be filthy, though 
cleaned daily. 

Keeping the Nests Clean.— Absolute cleanliness in the nests is a condition of good hatching. 
If a nest is fouled, or if eggs are broken in it, it should be cleaned, the eggs washed in luke- 
warm water, the soiled nest material removed and the nest made new as soon as possible. 
Generally it will do no great harm if a nest goes for twenty-four hours uncleaned, but it should 
not go longer. There is some excuse for that much delay because it is not advisable to disturb 
the hens to inspect the nests. The inspection of nests should be made as the hens come oft* to 
feed. If the nes-t is in very bad condition it should be cleaned up at once. If not very bad note 
should be made of it, and all nests which need cleaning cleaned as soon as the attendant can 
convenientlv do so. 



FIRST LESSONS IX POULTMX KEEPING 
Treating Nests and Mens for Lice. 
-Tobacco leaves and stems, as noted Id a preceding paragi 



11 



Insecticides. — Tobacco leaves and stems, as noted In a preceding paragraph, are often used 
to keep lice away from Bitting hens. When tiie.se are not used the oesl Bbould be liberally 
sprinkled with a good Insect powder when made. Then a few days later the hen may lie lifted 
from the nest in the evening and well dusted with insect, powder. Another dusting of the ben 
about the middle of the hatch, and a third just before the eggs begin to pip will generally Insure 
chicks freedom from lice when they hatch, and make it unnecessary to treat them for lice in the 

lit Ms. 

The Dust Bath.— When the earth of the floor of the place where the hens are set is clean and 
fine :uid dry enough that affords them a suitable place for wallowing, and hens that make 
liberal use of it will keep in much better condition than those that go back to the nest quickly 
after eating their fill. Wallowing gives them vigorous exercise, and also keeps the feathers 
clean. When there is a yard accessible, and the ground dry enough, heus will by preference 
go out in the suu to wallow, but this is too uncertain to rely upon. 

Testing the Eggs. 

It is always best to test eggs as soon as they have incubated long enough to show develop- 
ment, and remove all infertile eggs and all showing dead germs or a general breaking up of the 
liquid conteuts of the egg.. It is such eggs that are most likely to break, and when they do 
i >reak make the worst mess of the nest. 

Egg testers are sold by all dealers in poultry supplies. One of the most common forms is a 
metal chimney to go on an ordinary lamp. One side of the chimney at the point opposite the 
flame of the lamp, is cut out and fitted with a piece of heavy felt in which is an oval hole of 
such dimensions that when an egg is held before it, the light shines through the egg, and what- 
ever developments are made inside the egg can be seen. 

A home made tester may be made of a box of such size as to contain a common hand lamp. 
The accompanying illustration shows how such a tester may be made. White shelled eggs 
may be tested at the fourth or fifth day. Dark shelled eggs can 
sometimes be tested at the fifth day, but when the shells are 
thick and strong, as well as dark, it is as well to. let testing go 
until the seventh day. 

The most pronounced indications of fertility and beginning 
development of the chick are a clearly defined air space at the 
large end of the egg, (the egg should be tested large end up), and 
a cloudy appearance, densest in the upper part of the egg. 

An absolutely clear egg is either an infertile egg or one in which 
the germ did not develop far enough for its death to immediately 
cause decomposition to begin about it. 

An infertile egg will not decompose during the period of incuba- 
tion, but would be clear if allowed at the end of three weeks to 
remain under the hen the full period. 

Heavy red lines or clots in the egg indicate dead germs. In a 
white egg a spider like red spot is often seen at the first test. This 
is the beginning of the development of the arterial system, and the 
Home Made Egg Tester. egg showing it is all right. 

When the air space, as seen through the tester, is not permanently defined, but the line 
between i» and the fluids of the egj; moves as the egg is turned about, the germ is dead, and the 
egg is decomposing. 

The various conditions described above are not always unmistakably plain. Practice is 
required before one becomes expert in distinguishing them. In all cases where there is doubt, 
mark the eg<r and leave it for the next test, which should be made about the end of the second 
week. At that time the air space should show very plain, while all below it is dark. 

Chilled Eggs. 

If the instructions given in this lesson In regard to keeping nests closed are followed, there 
will lie chilled eggs only in case of a ben becoming sick, or dying on the nest, or refusing to 




42 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

Bit. Such cases do occur, but the most common cause of chilled eggs is two hens taking the 
same nest, and leaving a nest uncovered. In freezing weather an hour is about the limit of time 
that eggs under ordinary conditions can be uncovered and still hatch. In warm weather they 
may be uncovered for several hours, or even all day without injury. 

When the Chicks are Hatching. 

After the eggs begin to pip, hens should not be disturbed more than is necessary. It is 
quite necessary, however, to look under the hens occasionally to see that everything is right. 
Some hens become very nervous at this time, move about and break the eggs. Such hens 
should be removed if possible and quieter hens that have eggs not far advanced exchanged for 
them. By shifting hens in this way when necessary, much of the loss common at this stage 
is saved. 

It is at this time that a badly formed nest causes most trouble. If the nest is too dishing, the 
eggs tend to roll to the center, and crush in the shells of picked eggs, and often crush chicks as 
soon as out of the shell. 

There are also some hens that will kill their chicks as hatched. One must watch for these, 
exchange them for others, and, of course, take them out of the sitters' pens as soon as their 
services can be dispensed with. 

If, as sometimes happens, a part of the eggs in each nest hatch a day or so ahead of the 
others, it is a good plan to give some of the hens the chicks, and others the eggs yet to hatch. 
This gives much better chance of good chicks from the last eggs. 

As a general rule, eggs that have not hatched by the morning of the twenty-second day, will 
not, even if they do hatch after that, produce chicks worth keeping. 

Many people consider it an indication of exceptional vitality to have chicks come out in 
nineteen days, but I think most close observers will agree that the <;hick that takes twenty to 
twenty-one days to develop makes the best chick. 

Helping Chicks Out of the Shell. 

As a rule, it is best to let chicks get out by themselves. The chick that needs help is not 
often good enough to make it worth while to fuss with it. 



FIRST LESSONS IX POULTRY KEEPING. 



43 



LESSON V 



Rearing Chicks With Hens. 



B 



EFORE discussing the care of chicks with hens, we must consider the question of 
coop, for hens with chicks. As we found in the last lesson that the necessary appli- 
ances for hatching chicks with hens were very few, simple, and inexpensive, and thai 
the point of most importance was to provide quarters where the hens and nests would 
he as free as possible from all kinds of interference, and at the same time the place be con- 
venient for the attendant; so in rearing chicks with hens we find that the appliances essential 
when conditions are ideal are simple, and that a variety of makeshifts, costing practically 
nothing, are used by poultrymen. As special conditions have to be considered, we have to 
give more attention to providing appliances to meet those conditions, vet in no case need these 
appliances be such that a man handy with tools could not make them for himself with little 
expense for material. 

The primitive style of chicken coop was probably an old barrel lying on its side on the 
ground, with stakes driven into the ground 
across the open end, to confine the hen while 
giving the chicks liberty. A wide board closed 
the end of the barrel at night, or at any time it 
was desired to confine the chicks; this board 
being simply set in position and held there by 
a stone, brick, or block of wood. Barrels are 
often so used still. 

An improvement on this form of quickly 
improvised coop was the box turned over on 

one side, with slats nailed across the open front. Should be not less than 12 inches wide; 14 or 16 inche 
H ith boxes of good size, and fairly substantial is better. Length of sides about 3 ft. 

construction, such an arrangement is still a good one where there are few enemies to molest 
the chicks and they can have good range. The principal objection to it is that the hen is rather 
closely confined. 

Of coops made for the purpose, the simplest is the common A shaped coop illustrated above, 
I do not recommend it except as an emergency coop. It can be quicklv and easily made, and 
almost any old material will work into it, so if a coop is needed in a great hurry this will do. 

A better f<jrm of this style coop is the A shaped coop with pen and movable shelter board 
shown in the accompanying cut. 

This coop may be made either with or without floor. If to be used on heavv soil that holds 
the water after a rain, it should have a floor. If used on land that drains quickly, no floor Id 
needed. Many people use and like these A shaped coops. It has alwavs seemed to me that 
must be because they were used to them, and had not tried the other stvle. I mi-ht use such 
©oops temporarily, but for a regular thing I prefer a box coop in its general makeup resem- 
bling the coop shown below with knock down pen. 




Common a. Shaped Coop. 



44 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTJiY KEEPING, 
Advantage of Box Style Coops. 




Another A Shaped Coop. 
Sides of roof 22 x 28 inches. 



One advantage of this style of coop is that the entire floor space in the coop, and ground 
space in the pen, are available for the hen as well as for the chicks. In the a shaped coop 

the hen can stand upright only in the middle of the 
coop. This gives her actually much less room than 
she appears to have, and this close confinement in 
coops is one of the reasons why hens sometimes do 
not do well with chicks. We must give the hen a 
chance. 

A second advantage of the box coop is that it is 
more easily cleaned. I used them for years in a dry 
climate, with the top nailed fast, cleaning the coop 
by tipping first backward, then sideways toward the door, then forward, the droppings rolling 
out at the door. For climates where the floor gets damp, and the droppings adhesive, the top 
should be hinged, thus making it easy to get at the inside of the coop to clean. Besides, the 
angles at the floor being right angles instead of acute angles, as in the other style of coops, the 
corners are much easier to keep clean in case of 
the coop with a floor, and this box coop makes a 
serviceable coop for all seasons. 

To go into all the details of coop construction 
in this lesson would be out of the question. We 
must have a special lesson on that subject next 
winter at the time when coops should be made Co °P Shown in Last Illustration with Pen* ft. Long 

, . ., x . , . and Movable Shelter Board. 

ready for the coming season. I give here only 

enough about coops to give those studying these lessons a fair idea of them, and wish to 

impress on them as having special bearing on their success in rearing chicks with hens that the 

structure of the coops should combine these two features: 

(1). Comfort of both hen and chicks. 

(2). Convenience of the attendant. 




Coop Pens for Hens and Chicks. 

The illustrations so far show pens which confine the hen, but give the chicks full liberty. 
This is the best way to handle them if it can be done. 

It cannot be done, however, where enemies of chicks are so numerous that they would 

destroy many of the chicks if 
H ., , L given liberty. Poultry keep- 

ers living in towns have espe- 
cially to guard against the 
maraudings of cats. Against 
these the best protection is 
wire covered pens. The il- 
lustration on next page shows 
such a pen used with a box 
coop of the same width. 

This pen> is a little more 
easily handled than that I use, 
which is wider, mine being 6 
x 12 ft. on the ground, where 
this is 2 x 12 ft. I prefer the 
larger ones as giving the 
chicks more room, and not re- 
quiring to be moved so often. 
New just a word about the use of such coops to protect the small chicks. They are more 
expensive, and it is more trouble to handle chicks thts way thau in the other-coops with the 




Box Coop With Knock Down Pen. 

This coop is 22 x 24 Inches, outside measure on the ground, 2t inches 
high in from, and 16 inches in the rear. When made of these dimen- 
sions 10 Inch boards cut with practically no waste. The latter pen is 
4 ft. long, 2 ft. wide, 2 ft. high. Top and bottom rails are of 1 inch 
stuff, 2 Inches wide. 



Filter LESSONS I\ POULTRY KEEPING. 



chicks at liberty, hut unless you are sure that losses from cats hawks, etc.. with the chicks at 
liberty will he very light, it pays to use safe coops. They have to he used only for a short 
time, and there Is no nse batoning chicks unless you take care of them after they are batched. 

Why Coop Hens and Chicks? 

This is the question which has su jested itself to many readers. They may see the ad visa" 
hility of confining bens and chicks to protect the chicks while small, hut do not so readily see 
the need of confining the hen while the chicks run at large. In a state of nature the hen runs 
with the chicks. Yes, hut in growing chicks we have to average very much better than nature, 
both as to quality ami quantity produced. 

Hens have advantages as mothers. These we need not here consider. They also have their 
disadvantages. It is in guarding against losses from these that those who succeed well in 
growing chicks by natural methods excel. AH hens are not alike in their habits with chicks. 
Some can he allowed full liberty ; others cannot. You cannot know in advauce which to trust. 







flr^j^2^^flfl Hfc 


•if 







C<i< n>i<i Ilairk Proof Coop Ptnfi. 

Dimensions of these coop pens are, —length 12 ft.; height 2 ft.; width 2 ft, They arc made of lath, and cov- 
ered wiiii l -inch tnesli wire netting. 

Hence you must devise a system of handling them, and impose such restraints on all that you 
are sure that avoidable losses nre reduced to the minimum. 

The faults of some hens as 'mothers are: — 

(1). I*oo great activity and restlessness, never still themselves, they wear the chicks 
out. 

I have seen fine broods of a dozen or more chicks reduced to two or three in less than two 
days, in this way, when, had the hen been restrained, not a chick need have been lost. Cot lino 
the ben, and, as a rule, she soon learns to be contented in her coop, if it is a suitable coop. 
and, if her wants are supplied, gives her chickens a great deal more brooding than if allowed 
to run with them. 



45 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

(2). Weaning the chicks too soon. 

Many hens would leave their chicks at two to three weeks old, if allowed to do so. Some 
•will brood chicks while laying, but many will not, and as a well fed hen is likely to begin laying 
within ten to twenty days after hatching her chicks, many chicks will be forsaken while still in 
heed of a mother, if the hens could leave them at will. 

These are the general faults against which cooping is an insurance. The other special faults 
■will be considered briefly under the next heading. 

Selecting Hens for Mothers. 

A hen that makes a good sitter does not always make a good mother. Some hens that sit 
very quietly become very fussy with a brood of chicks, are a constant aggravation to the 
;keeper, and frequently injure chicks. The ideal mother is the hen that has made a good hatch, 
and, that on removal from the nest with chicks, settles down quietly in the quarters assigned 
her. If she tramps about and seems to move without regard to the chicks, change for another 
hen if possible. If she is vicious, don't use her for another unless you have to. The hen that 
fights for her chicks, with or without provocation, will do in fiction, but in practice she harms 
more than she helps them. For the sake of the chicks as well as for the sake of the attendant, 
only docile hens should be used as mothers. 

Taking Chicks from the Nest. 

Chicks should be removed from the nest about twenty-four hours after the first chicks in it, 
hutched. If hatching has been uneven, there may be some chicks not ready to leave the nest 
then. If so, they may be put under other hens, or if that is not practicable, remove to a warm 
place, and keep them wrapped in flannel or cotton until well dried and up on their feet 

By the time the first hatched chicks (which are generally the strongest), are a day old they 
want to get out from under the hen and move about a little, and may make her so restless that 
if the nest is open she will leave it with such chicks as can follow her, and if closed so that she 
-cannot get out, may scratch around in it and do a good deal of damage. 

Except in warm bright settled weather, it is not, as a rule, advisable to take chicks at this 
age direct from the nests tooutdoor coops. Though they want to move about a little, and soon 
-eat some, for the first few days warmth and quiet are of greatest importance. To secure these, 
have boxes with open tops protected by slats or wire netting, into which the broods can be put 
•for a few days, and kept indoors. 

The hen and chicks can be fed and watered in these, and can move about a little, but must 
keep quite quiet, and in case a hen is not disposed to brood her chicks the greater part of the 
time, she can be " persuaded " to do so by throwing a bag over the top of the box, making it 
<dark. Chicks kept close and warm and quiet this way for a few days go to the outdoor 
coops strong and lively. 

In bad weather they may be kept in such boxes a little longer, but never more than four or 
five days, or they fret at confinement and do not thrive. 

Before putting chicks into the box, put a sprinkling of chaff, hay, leaves, or finely cut hay or 
>traw into it. Use just enough to cover the bottom. Too much will often make trouble, the 
hen scratching in it and burying some of her chicks with it. 

Harking the Chicks. 

If the chicks are to be punch marked in the feet to identify them, it should be done as they 
are taken from the nest. For this purpose use a small size spring punch made for marking 
chicks, and sold by all supply houses and many poultry journals. (We advertise one in tnis 
paper). 

If chicks are marked at this age, the operation gives as little pain as possible. The cut bleeds 
}>ut little, sometimes not at all, and as the chicks remain under the hens most of the time for a 
day or two, there is less trouble with chicks, attracted by the blood on feet that bleed, picking 
each other to pieces. 

In making the punch mark, mark well into the web, but not so far as to injure the bones of 
the foot. 



FIBST LESSONS IX rolILTUY KEEPING 



47 









J/riitod of J'lllirh 

Marking Chicks. 



The usual practice is to mark chicks according to the mating from 
which they came. Sometimes, however, each brood is given its special 
mark. As the accompanying cut shows, it is possible to make tifteer 
combfnations of punch marks in the four webs. 

Culling Chicks as Taken from the Nests. 

A vigorous weeding out of deformed and weak chicks at this time is 
good insurance against trouble and loss afterwards. It pays to kill at 
this stage, every chick that does not seem to be just right. Some of the 
weaklings may outgrow their weakness if given a chance, but many more 
will not, ami the best way Is to take no chance on a chick that does not 
seem to be a good chick. The loss on that chick is less now than it will 
be at any later stage, and the common experience has been that the great 
majority of the deformed or weak chicks allowed to live, make a loss at 
some time. 

Some minor troubles, like club feet and crooked beaks, do not materially 
affect the health of the chick, but, on general principles, and for the sake 
of the good looks of the flock, it, is well to dispose of these also. 
How Many Chicks to a Hen ? 

If the chicks are all of one color, the hens will take chicks hatched by 
other hens, but if there are chicks of several colors hatched at the same 
time, unless a hen hatched all colors one must be careful in giving her odd 
looking chicks. Some will take them; others will kill them. 

With chicks all of one kind and age, then they may be divided up as 
desired among the hens selected for mothers. 

As long as the weather is at all cool, nine or ten chicks is enough for an 
ordinary sized ben, and twelve or thirteen for a large one. As the season 
advances, more may be given, but I have found results much better in 
growth and quality of chicks when I never went very far beyond these 
figures. 

I. have given as high as forty chicks to a hen, and bad them live and 
grow to be healthy. I have run eighteen to twenty chicks with medium 
sized hens, and had quite satisfactory results. But comparing the general 
results under such conditions with results when broods were smaller, I 
have, for years, rarely given over twelve chicks to a medium sized hen, or 
fifteen to a large one, and thiuk the better results well worth what little 
additional work the greater number of broods makes. 

Where to Place the Coops. 

There is not always opportunity for choice in this matter. With 
many there is just one spot available for coops, and the question becomes 
how best to handle chicks in this place. But when there are different 
.situations available, that should be selected which best combines the two 
points we have already emphasized once in this lesson, 1. e., the comfort 
of the hens and chicks, and the convenience of the attendant. 

The best place for chicken coops, and for young chickens, is in an 
orchard which furnishes abundance of sun and shade. If an orchard 
near the dwelling can be used for chicks, this is quite the ideal place ; and, 
of course, if on a small place, the few coops of chicks can be placed 
under the few fruit trees the place may have, we have the same con- 
ditions on a small scale. 

Another good place is near a hedge, where the coops of the hens may be 
shaded at least a part of the day, while the chicks can run in the shade of 
the hedge, or out into the open fields at will. The conditions for the 
chicks may be just as good as in an orchard, but the coops have to be 
extended in lines, and cannot be as compactly placed as in an orchard 
where they may be in parallel rows, and the attendant can look after 
them without going over so much ground. 



48 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

VV T heu the hens are confined while the chicks go at will, the coops may be placed two or 
three rods apart each way, and the coops shifted as often as necessary to prevent the grass 
being ruined under them. 

When the chicks are confined while small to wire covered coops, these may be placed as 
close together as desired, or as the lay of the land admits, and moved the length of a coop to 
new ground in a block; or, if one prefers, he can place his coops separately, and shift them 
independently. A little study to locate coops at first with reference to the shiftings necessary, 
will often save some inconvenience later. 

What To Do Where There is No Natural Shade. 

Both shade and sun the chicks must have, and if there is no natural shade, shades must be 
made to cover either the whole or a part of the top of a coop. With such shade provided, 
the coops may be put right out in the open where they get the full strength of the sun, and 
will do well, though I think never on the whole as well as with natural shade, and the moist 
earth under it. 

Transferring Hens and Chicks to the Coops. 

Always, if possible, move the hens and chicks to the coops when the weather is bright and 
warm. Avoid moving hens with small chicks to new coops late in the afternoon. If you 
cannot get them out in time to give them several hours in the sun before they have to settle 
down for the night, better let them wait until next morning. Older chicks are easier to move 
after dark, but if the small ones are moved about, then one must be very careful or the hens 
trample some of them before they settle down. 

Let them get wonted to their new quarters before bedtime. Then, as a rule, if she has not 
done so several times during the day, the hen will go into the coop of her own accord, and 
make her nest in one corner, (the coop should have a good big handful of chaff or cut hay or 
straw thrown in for this purpose), and the chicks will follow her. 

If, as sometimes happens, the hen insists on staying out in one corner of the pen at night, try 
to drive her gently into the coop. If she will not go in and stay, wait until it is almost dark, 
catch her and put her in the coop, closing the door so that she cannot get out, but the chickens 
can get in. In view of possible cases like this it is well to have coops so constructed that you 
can get at the hens easily when they stay out. I have to confess that mine have not always 
been so built, and, in consequence, I have sometimes had to fool away more time than I should 
with such cases. After being compelled to go to the coop for the night ouce or twice the hen 
seldom gives further trouble on that score. 

Feeding the Young Chickens. 

The feeding of young chickens need not differ much from the feeding of adult fowls. The 
young chick needs food oftener, and needs it in form appropriate to its size, but except for 
these two particulars the systems and methods of feeding can be the same for both small chicks 

and fowls, providedthe method of feeding the fowls is good. If the method of feeding 

the fowls is bad, the effects on the young chicks will be very much worse than on the fowls, 
and their digestive systems are easilv r .ied. 

In this we have the explanation of the fact that so many people do really find it necessary to 
use a ration for their chicks different from that given their fowls, and when they do the genernl 
tendency is to go much further than necessary in fussing with foods for the chicks. In thi<, 
too, we have an explanation for the fact that the dry feed system began to be applied exten- 
sively with young chicks some time before much attention was given it in connection with {he 
feeding of old fowls, and while'I personally do not use the dry feed system for young chicks I 
can easily see that a great many get better results by it than by their application of a mash 
system. 

What was said in Lesson I. of poultry foods and feeding systems for winter egg production 
applies generally to foods and feeding systems for young chicks, with the difference as indicated 
above, and with the additional difference that disadvantages in either system need to be more 
carefully watched with chicks than with fowls. 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY K KEPI .\7,\ 1«, 

be considered here. Readers using Bueh foods, and desiring to continue their use rather 
than any of the methods here described, ma; ask Mich questions as they wish about them. 
and these will he answered ; but to consider the multitudes of "fussy" methods at length-" 
Is out of the question. 

Ration I. Mash and Grain Feeds Alternated. 
1 speak of the mush and grain as "alternated" for want of a word which in a word will 
convey the idea. They are not regularly alternated ail the time, hut as far as convenient 
and advisable the soft and hard feeds alternate. 

Morning. Firsf Feed. — Mash as recommended for hens in Ration I., Lesson 1. 
Middle of Morning.— Millet or a "chick feed" mixture. 
Noon. — Wheat. 
Middle of Afternoon.— Mash. 
F.r, ning. —Cracked corn. 

If the chicks have grass run they get their own green food ; if confined where they have 
no grass green food must he provided. As will he noticed, the only thing this ration calls 
for in addition to what is provided for the old fowls is the chick feed mixture. Such a 
mixture I would recommend generally in preference to ordinary millet because it gives 
greater variety, and is on the whole, more economical. Indeed often the cost per 100 lbs. 
is no greater. 

Ration II. Baked Cake and Grain Feeds Alternated. 

In this ration we simply substitute a baked "johnnycake" for the mash in Ration I. 
This cake may be made entirely of. coin meal or of a mixture of corn meal with other 
ground stuffs. This ration is to be preferred to Ration I. where only ;•. few chicks 
are to be fed, as a large cake may be baked which will last several days, giving the so' 
food always ready, and making it unnecessary to mix a mash daily or oftener. When - 
many chicks are kept that the baking of cake for thpm becomes burdensome, the in: 
preferable. 

Ration III. Mash. Baked Cake and Grains Alternated. 

This ration may be used if it is preferred net'to have mash about after f 
feed, or if it is more convenient to mix only enough mash for that feed. 
A Feio Recipes for Johnnycake. 
Add a little soda to sour milk; stir in corn meal or corn chop, to make a 
stitbr the better. A few infertile egu r s added improve the cake. Bake d 

through. Make cake thick to reduce proportion of crust. 



Take one pint corn meal, one teacup bran, one teaspoonful meat me;i ne tea- 

spoon soda, one teacup cold water; bake two hours. 



Take three quarts corn meal, one quart wheat middlings, one cuj ; mix with 

water or skimmed milk to which has been added four tablespoons ving< wo teaspoons 

soda. 



Ration IV. All Dry Grain. 

For this ration bought prepared mixtures are generally used. 

Ration V. Dry Mash and Dry Grain. 

For this again ! \ ould recommend those who use it to buy the prepared mixtures, 
because the chick dry mash is ground more finely than they can get it for toemselv* s, 
and the mixture of grain contains a greater variety than they would give, and when they 
leave out mashes and iohnnycakes with the variety which is secured in the use of I hese, 
and in their alternation with grain, they need greater variety in the grain. 
There are scores of very good mixtures for chicks on the market, and many of them at very 
reasonable prices. 



50 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

Common Errors in Feeding Chicks. 

There is nothing mysterious, complicated or difficult about the proper feeding of young 
chicks, and yet most beginners have a great deal of trouble with them. So before discussing a 
few of the good methods of feeding let us have a statement of some of the more common errors 
in feeding. 

1. When soft food is used, often too much of it is used. Too many meals of soft food are 

given, and not enough hard grain. 

People either do not know or do not appreciate the fact that the chick unlike the young 
of mammals and of pigeons, has digestive organs that will take just the same kind of 
food the adult fowls take. 

The old fashioned way of feeding chicks was to give them corn meal dough or merely 
wetted corn meal three, four, or five times a day. Some chicks lived and grew on this 
feeding because they had good range and exercise, and plenty of vegetable food and 
insects, but they did not then and do not now make the growth on such feeding that they 
do when fed a more appropriate ration. 

2. Too concentrated foods are used, especially meals— corn meal and oat meal, and hard 

boiled eggs. 

Corn meal may be used alone, if baked in a johnnycake, with good results; but raw or 
only partly cooked corn meal alone is too likely to be hard to digest. 

Oat meal and various oat preparations if fed heavily have much the same effects as corn 
meal. One of the surprising things about opinions of feeding chickens is the persistence 
with which some authorities cling to the idea that oats are an ideal and very complete 
food, and oat meal the most desirable article for feeding young chicks; when the fact is 
that chicks do not like it, and the sentiment in favor of it is traditional, and not based on 
modern experience at all. 

Oat meal and corn meal mixed together, and with bran, make a good food for chicks. 
The proportion of the meals to i>ran may be slightly greater for chicks than for fowl*, 
because the growing chick can more readily utilize an excess of nutritious matter than 
the matured fowl can, but the difference in this respect in rations should be slight. 

Hard boiled eggs are often fed very heavily— especially if fertility of eggs is poor — and 
when combined, as they too often are, with a ration which without them would be too 
concentrated, they are likely to aggravate any digestive disorders that develop. 

3. Animal and vegetable foods are not provided as they should be. 

Many poultry keepers who are no longer amateurs are like most novices in being afraid 
to feed meat meals and scraps to young chickens. There certainly is greater risk in feed- 
ing them an article of poor quality, but a good grade of meat scrap or meal may be fed 
quite as freely as to older fowls, though of course, if used in a mash or cake that is fed 
several times a day to the chicks where the mash for fowls is fed but once, the percentage 
of meat in the mash must be reduced or the chicks are fed more meat proportionately 
than old fowls. 

In supplying green food to chicks the great majority of novices give it very irregularly, 
and rarely in sufficient quantity. 
The three points stated and explained above cover, I believe, the most serious errors in the 
feeding of chicks. When these are avoided the other faults in feeding may not show conspicu- 
ously poor results. 

Methods of Feeding. 

< )t these we wiM consider a few which may be taken as typical: 

1. Mash and grain feeds alternated. 

2. Baked cake and grain feeds alternated. 

3. Combination of 1 and 2. 

4. All dry feed— small cracked and broken grains. 

5. Dry mash and dry grain. 

These are all simple systems calling for the use of only such foods as are used for the 
old stock, or may be bought in bulk at about the same prices. The use of foods which 
require entirely different bill of fare and mode of preparation for young chicks will not 



Fin n 1 ' L E s s ons i\ pou l i m k /•: eping. 5 j 

How Often to Feed. 

In rations I., II., and III., five feedings a day are indicated. This is about right for small 
Chicks, up to the time of weaning, when conditions are such that it is not advisable to feed more 
nt a time than will be eaten up within a comparatively short time. For Ration IV., five feed- 
iDgs may be used. For Ration V., the mash may be kept before the chicks all the time, if 
fed in troughs or hoppers they cannot get into, and the grain feeds given as used. 

Keeping Feed by Chicks all the Time. 

If Ration V. is used us indicated above, one kind of feed is kept before the chicks all the 
time. 

If chicks have good range, it is entirely practicable to put out at one time all the food for 
the day. a dry mash in hoppers or troughs, and the grain scattered over the ground they run 
over. It will be found that they feed themselves quite regularly. 

Mashes and baked cakes cannot be left long before chicks without souring or drying, but 
under any conditions which admit of scattering the grain for the day over the chicks' range, the 
grain for Ratious I., II., and 111. may be put out in the morning when the first mash or cake 
is fed, and if chicks are watered then, only one more visit is needed for the day, i. e., to give 
the second soft food, and perhaps renew the water supply. 

Sometimes it is practicable to feed all grain in hoppers, boxes, or troughs, the chicks taking 
sufficient exercise of their own accord, and as they forage for green food and insects. 

There is, however, the danger that chicks with all grain food so easily acquired, may fail to 
forage enough, hence, if one adopts this method, he should continue or reject it according as 
he finds it works well or otherwise with any particular lot of chicks. 

How fluch to Feed. 

Chicks that have opportunity and disposition to exercise may, as a rule, safely be fed all 
they will eat. Keeping food before them of course means that they can get all they will eat at 
any time. £ 

The danger in feeding more than is eaten at the time is not so much due to chicks overeat* 
log of sound sweet food, as to their eating the food left over, after it has become sour or 
fouled. 

In feeding mash and cake, one must learn by experience how much to feed to a brood. At 
tir>t the hen and chicks will eat so little more than the hen alone that, as the hen generally gets 
a >hare of each food given the chicks, and is likely to see that their wants are supplied before 
satisfying her own appetite, the best rule I can give for first feeds is to feed the hen and brood 
just as if feeding the hen without a brood. Then as you give the hen five feeds instead of 
three, this means that you are allowing the brood about two-thirds of what you would give a 
hen. This is for a brood of a dozen or so. Now the chicks do not eat so much as this, but the 
hen, after her three weeks on the nest, will take all they leave for awhile. Then by the time 
the chicks are eating a perceptible quantity, her appetite has moderated. So, while the rule 
will not always apply exactly, if for the first two or three weeks you give hen and chicks at 
each feed one hen's allowance, you will be as near right as you can be by any general rule. 
After that time the chicks begin to eat so much more that you can better gauge the quantity 
by observation. 

Remember that almost all poultrymen feeding chicks with hens throw out a great deal more 
food than is necessary while the chicks are small. 

Feed Troughs for Chicks. 

For a brood of chicks a bit of board about 5 or 6 in. wide by 10 or 12 long, with strips of lath 
nailed around the edges to form the sides of a very shallow box, makes a satisfactory trough 
for feeding mash, and is large enough for the brood as long as they stay with the hen. Many 
other simple styles might be described, but to do so here would take more space thau is avail- 
able. 

A trough or box in which a supply of food is to be kept before the chicks must, of course, be 
•deeper, and must be protected from rain. 



52 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

Water for Chicks. 

Chicks should have always before them a supply of good water. Many cases of " cramps " 
are caused by letting the chicks become very thirsty and then fill up with cold water. 

For a few chicks together with a hen I prefer flower pot saucers for drinking vessels. Dif- 
ferent sizes of these can be used for different sized chicks. There is no possibility of their 
drowning in them. They keep the water cooler than either tin, iron or wooden vessels, and 
though more dirt will be kicked into them than into a drinking fountain they are more easily 
cleaned. 

Keeping Chicks Free From Lice. 

If the hen and nest were kept free from lice, the chicks should need no treatment for several 
days. They may not need it then, but for an inexperienced grower it is always better to keep 
on the safe side and prevent lice getting established, for when they become numerous they do a 
great deal of damage in a very short time. Dust them with an insecticide within two or three 
days after taking from the nest, then at intervals of a week until they are three weeks old. 
After that they should not need treatment for lice. 

I have always used Dalmatian insect powder for young chicks. There may be some of the 
other insect powders not composed largely of Dalmatian that are as effective, but many of them 
will not kill head lice on young chickens, while fresh Dalmatian has never failed to do this for 
me. 

Apply it with a powder gun, such as can be bought at any drug store for 15 to 25 cents, 
according to size. Here the advantage of a convenient coop is apparent. With a box coop 
with hinged top, one may go in the evening, raise the top, take the hen in one hand, puff a few 
puffs of powder over the chicks as they sit in one corner of the coop; then holding the hen by 
the feet, head down, with one hand, work the powder gun with the other, puffing the powder 
well into the feathers, especially around the vent and under the wings. 

Observe that the powder is very punge\it, (it will make you sneeze) and a few puffs of it 
are enough. It will not injure the chicks if used moderately. I never knew of its injuring 
them anyway, but some claim it has in some cases. 




FIRST LESSONS IN roULTlll KEEP IN GL 



53 



LESSON VII. 



The Care of Chicks From Weaning to Haturity. 



IT IS often said that the first three weeks in the chick's life are the critical period; that 
if the chick lives through that period it is likely to grow to maturity. 
There is some truth in this view, but it is not all true. It is not true to the extent that 
the poultrymaa is warranted in relaxing his efforts to produce chicks each of which shall 
make the best development of which it is capable. Indeed, I am inclined, after a good many 
years listening to complaints about chicks that do not thrive, and with a vivid recollection of 
some faults I have seen in my own work with poultry, to consider the period just after wean 
ing the most critical period in the life of a chick reared by the natural method Let me give 
a single illustration. 

While the hen remains, or is kept, with the chicks, she relieves the owner of responsibility in 
regard to supplying them with heat. After the chicks are weaned the attendant must make 
sure that they do not suffer for lack of heat. They may not need supplied heat at all, but if 
they do they must have it, and whether they get it or not depends generally upon the judgment 
of tae attendant, and his attention to his busiuess. fc^ 

Age for Weaning Chicks 

The age at which chicks should be weaned depends upon the weather and upon their 
conditiou, especially the condition of the plumage. 

Left to herself, the average hen would wean her chicks at six to eight weeks of age. This 
may be all ri^ht for chicks coming to such age in this latitude after the middle of June, but 
earlier than that chicks left to themselves are very likely to get chilled, and it is safest to see 
that they have some heat supplied until one feels sure they do not need it. Prior to May 1st, 
chicks, unless in a very warm house or coop, may need more warmth than they themselves 
furnish, up to ten or twelve weeks of age. After that they should, if well developed and 
feathered for their age, get along very well with the same kind of accommodations the old 
fowls have. 

Coops for Weaned and Growing Chicks. 

The accompanying cuts show two somewhat similar styles of coops for growing chicks. ( I 
would just say, by the way, that it has become 
quite the custom to apply the term " growing 
chicks'' to the chicks after weaning, perhaps 
because the rate of growth of thrifty chicks, 
from weaning to maturity, being very clearly 
noticed, while earlier growth seems slower). 

The first coop shown is one that may be 
used very early in the season, and which is so 
constructed as to make the chicks secure when 
the coop is closed. This coop may be built 
with or without board floor. 







Secure Coop for Growing Chicks. 



54 



FIB ST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



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III 






£ 


I:! 

I 




i' 


•;V ^ 














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v 
3 


ft; 


5 


III 








■V 


lllllllllll 




lillllllll! 








■i' 


■.;:> 


:'. 



The second style is more common, and, when there is nothing to molest the chicks at night r 
is preferable, because more airy in warm weather. It must be remembered in using coops 
like these that the cubic air space in the coop is very much less in proportion to floor and roost- 
ing space than in a house for adult fowls; hence 
the necessity of making ample provision for 
fresh air. 

Many other styles of coops suitable for chicks 

might be given, but this general plan seems to 

be that which gives most general satisfaction. 

Wherever it is safe to use a coop without a 

A Common Style of Roosting Coop for Chicks. floor, coops should be built that way. Then 

they can be shifted easily to new locations, and no cleaning of floors is needed. 

The dimensions for such coops as these should be 6 to 8 ft. long, about 3 ft. wide, 2 to 2£ ft. 
high in the rear, and 3 to 8£ ft. high in front. 

Capacity of Boosting Coop.— The capacity of coops approximating the dimensions given 
above, is about thirty well grown chicks, and this is about as many as it is advisable to put into 
them, for though a much larger number of chicks just weaned could be kept in such a coop, 
it is much better to put into the coop at first not many more than the coop will conveniently 
accommodate when the chicks are well grown. Then one need not fear the effects of over- 
crowding by the chicks outgrowing their quarters. 

Other Arrangements for Growing Chicks. 

The coops illustrated above furnish substantial neat coops exactly adapted to this special 
purpose, but many other arrangements are possible. All the chicks really need is shelter, and 
during summer weather it need not be very complete shelter. One of the nicest lots of 
chickens I ever had were kept at night, from June until late in October, in a makeshift, tem- 
porary coop, the back of which was a strip of the board walk we used over the gravel walk 
in winter. This was 16 ft. long and 2 ft. wide, and made the coop two feet high at the back. 
The ends of the coop were two sides of a dry goods box, 2 ft. square. The open front of 
the coop was 2 ft. high the length of the coopi A board 10 in. wide at the top of the front kept 
the rain from driving in, and to this and to the edge of the back were nailed short pieces of 
old goods boxes, making a roof through which rain might drip, but would not drive. This 
coop remained in one spot in an orchard where the ground sloped just enough to let all 
<lropping8 work out of the coop, leaving the floor always clean. 

I give this as an extreme illustration of the useful makeshifts for the purpose our present 
lesson considers. "We do not want such arrangements for permanent use, but for an emergency, 
and especially when it is necessary to get chicks out of a crowded and badly ventilated coop or 
house, such quickly improvised coops are a good thing. Give the chicks room if you can do no 
more to provide it than to made a rude shelter of boards. 

Letting Chicks Roost in Trees. 

On the score of general health there is no objection whatever to letting chicks roost in trees. 
The objectionable features of it are that the chicks acquire too much readiness to fly, that they 
are not easy to get at, if one has occasion to catch them, and that their habits have to be 
radically changed in the fall when they must go into the houses. 

Teaching Chicks to Roost. 

Many chicks of the light and medium weight varieties begin to roost of their own accord 
about the weaning age. If, when they are first put into roosting coops, one or two hens are 
left with each bunch, the hens may soon teach the chickens to roost. The chieks'may sit on 
the floor for awhile, but, as a rule, if a few begin to roost, the rest, one by one, follow their 
natural instinct, and before long the entire lot will be roosting. If they do not begin roosting 
as they should, even with a few old birds for guides, put a wide board in place of a roost, 
about ten inches from the ground, and extending back to the wall, and go after dark and put 
chicks up on this. Generally after a few lessons they will go up of their own accord. Then 



FIBST LESSONS IX POULTRY KEEPING, y^ 

the board may be moved out from the wall, so that chicks crowding to the wall will drop off, 
and when the chicks learn not to huddle to the wall, take out the hoard ami put in Its place an 
ordinary roost. 

Chicks of the heavy breeds ought not to roost as early as the others. Many of them will not 
roost until about full grown, and chicks from Brahma or Cochin stock that have been kept with- 
out roosts for generations are sometimes very hard to teach to roost. 1 have hail some that I 
gave up. and let have their way. 

If ehieks will roost it is better that they should, for ou the roost tbey are not crowding and 
sweating, nor are they fouling themselves in their own droppings. The one thing to avoid 
when ehieks roost young is crooked breast bones, and with roosts three to four inches wide no 
more of these occur than would probably develop regardless of roosting conditions. 

Yard Room and Range for Growing Chicks. 

To grow good chicks without extraordinary attention it is necessary that they should have 
plenty of room outdoors. I would make the minimum of yard room about the same as for 
adult fowls when yards are to be kept in grass, and would double this if possible. The more 
room you can give your growing ehieks the less care you will have to give them, and the less 
risk you run in raising tliem. When chicks are kept in small yards, the yards late in the season 
become very foul, and they will not thrive ou foul ground as tbey will on clean fresh ground — 
especially a nice grassy lot. 

By giving due attention to all their wants, seeing that their quarters are kept quite clean, and 
providing exercise and sufficient supplies of animal food and green food with the grain ration, 
u r ood chicks may be grown in very limited quarters, but I doubt whether, when time and 
expense are considered, there is any profit iu growing stock that way except for market. 
Crowding tends to shorten the period of development, and to make chicks sexually mature 
before they are full developed physically. That is one of the reasons why market chicks, if 
thrifty, make a plumper, better filled out. as well as a softer meated, carcass than chicks given 
more liberty. The chick given good range develops a better frame which subsequently fills out 
fully, but for quick development for market condition confinement is preferable. So poultry- 
men are accustomed at about the weaning age to separate the chicks destined for market from 
those reserved for stock purposes, and handle the tvhB lots differently. 

Feeding the Growing Chicks. 

.The methods of feeding chicks after weaning are, or should be, a continuance, with some 
modifications, of the method followed previous to that time. A radical change of methods of 
feeding at this period is most unwise, and unless the feeding of the small chicks is much the 
same as that of old stock, the feeder should begin weeks before weaning, and change gradually 
from the baby chick ration to that which is to be used this season. The growth of a thrifty 
ehick at this period is notable from week to week, and the amount of food consumed 
increases very fast. 

The chicks have now attained such size that they are no longer easy prey to cats, crows, 
small hawks, and other enemies which hunt by day, and so may be given more liberty, and 
kept further from the dwelling with less risk of loss. Under such conditions, with good 
range and sun and shade, the feeding proposition becomes so simple that if the chiek has 
reached this stage with good sound digestive oruans, it is quite impossible to go wrong with 
it. The general conditions correct auy errors in feeding, and it will make practically very 
little difference what method is used — provided the chicks get enough to eat. It is, further, 
almost impossible to overfeed chicks under such conditions, and the thing to avoi 1 is not 
overfeeding on account of danger to the chicks, but overfeeding with consequent loss of 
food before the chicks eat it. 

Still, in giving food, one can put it out much more freely than if the chicks were confined to 
a small area, because if the grain is broadcasted they do not foul it as they do food in coops or 
small yards; and if fed in hoppers, or even in open troughs, they do not linger around these 
as they would if they had no opportunity to forage, and so the place is cleaner. 

If the yards, while giving a fair allowance of room, are still so small that it is thought best 
to feed several times a day, the feedings may be reduced to three or four, and these timed to 
suit the convenience of the keeper. 



56 FIB 1ST LESSONS IN roUL'lltl' KEEPING. 

My usual method of feeding chicks, from weaning until they go into winter quarters, is: 
Morning. — Mash. 

Morning. — (As soon after the mash is fed as I get around to it, say, within an hour). 
Wheat or cracked corn — wheat if price is right. Enough is thrown broadcast in the 
grass to give them something to look for, and still find good picking until late in the 
afternoon. 

Afternoon. — (About 4 to 5 o'clock, as I happen to get home from the office).— A good 
feed of fine cracked corn. If it is early so that the chicks have time to hunt for it, 
and still get a good feed before 6 o'clock, I scatter the grain widely. If it is a little 
lute I throw* it down in handfuls on the shorter grass. 

Evening. — (Just as the chicks are going in for the night). — All the mash they will eat. 
Chicks will eat a good bit of mash after having had their fill of hard grain, and also 
will eat quite freely of grain after having eaten all the mash they want. 
To get the best possible growth the chick must be full fed daily. If it has good digestion, 
and can take plenty of exercise, heavy feeding will not hurt it, unless the proportion of meat 
scrap in the mash is too great. My observation, however, has been that very few err by 
giving growing chicks too much meat. The general tendency is to give them too little, and 
the digestive troubles which chicks develop during this period are generally due to crowding 
and lack of exercise and green food combined with heavy feeding. 
In other words: — 

Under natural conditions overfeeding is almost impossible, while, 

When chicks are confined in too restricted quarters we have to be careful in feeding 
them,, not because the feeding system is bad, but because the other conditions interfere 
with digestion. 

Under artificial conditions we have to balance rations with a care we need not use under 
natural conditions. 

The system of feeding given above differs from that I use for adult fowls only in that grain is 
iriven rather more freely, and a second rn^ash is given supplementing the last feed of grain. 
Such feeding as this constitutes "forcing," or not, as you look at it. If chicks are given a meal 
of only one kind of food, and we take what they eat that way and the results obtained as our 
standards, then whatever induces them to eat more than by this system is forcing, and any 
better results thus obtained are due to such forcing. 

But consider this, instead, from our own point of view. Do we not eat more when we have 
a variety (not too great) at a meal than when the meal is comprised of but one or two plain and 
perhaps not very palatable foods? As I look at it, by giving a variety we are not forcing the 
chick, we are simply securing the fullness of development. All the feeding and heavy feeding 
the chick can stand stops short of forcing. Forcing begins when the chick cannot stand the 
ration given it, and its digestion gives out, or it goes down on its legs, and as has been said these 
troubles are avoided by making conditions which admit of heavy feeding, better than by keep- 
ing conditions bad and making rations to suit faulty conditions. 

Different Rations for Different Purposes. 

From what has just been said about the relations between feeding and conditions the reader 
is prepared to understand that the simplest way to arrange for feeding for different results is to 
change the conditions, letting the system of feeding remain the same. 

There are two kinds of results to be considered in feeding chicks after weaning. 

»1. Feeding chicks for stock purposes, that is, chicks to be used when mature for 
layers or breeders. 
2. Feeding chicks to be marketed at the most profitable marketable size. 
For chicks for stock purposes we have to either give conditions or make a ration which they 
can stand indefinitely. 

For market chicks the final consequences of feeding and conditions may be disregarded — pro- 
vided they are not reached before the chick is to be marketed. 

Suppose now a poultryman has a lot of chicks, the pullets and a few cockerels of which he 
wishes to reserve for stock purposes, while the rest of the cockerel- he will market as soon as 
possible. 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 57 

He shuts the cockerels that are to he marketed in a small yard, and feeds them the same as 
the others, hut as they take little exercise, they grow faster, put on fat more readily, and are 
soon in salable condition. 

The chicks for stock purposes he gives more room, they take more exercise, develop larger 
frames and grow constitutionally stronger, while the others, though putting on weight more 
quickly, are growing constitutionally weaker. In the long run the chicks that are given the 
heat conditions will make the better development, hut for quick returns and profits from meat 
the other way is better, the chicks being disposed of before they break down under the forcing 
process. 

.Making the difference in conditions, and consequently in the method of feeding, will be found 
the most economical way of special feeding for special results. There is no need of special 
foods for different purposes. 

Separating Chicks. 

Perhaps it would he more appropriate to say, "assorting the chicks." Some authorities put 
great stress on the separation of the sexes early in life; but separation accordiug to age and 
size, and the separation of the thrifty from the unthrifty are of greater importance. The 
separation of the sexes of thrifty chicks of the same age and size need not be made at all when 
they are to be handled the same way, except when the cockerels begin to annoy the pullets. 
This time will vary with different breeds, so we have a general rule, but a special application of 
it in each case. Leghorn males are very precocious. In Asiatics it is not at all uncommon for 
the pullets to begin to lay before the cockerels of the same age would offer them any attentions. 
Between these extremes we have cockerels of different breeds arriving at the age when it is 
advisable to separate them from the females at varying periods, and the only point necessary to 
observe is to remove a male that annoys the females in advance of their inclination. 

Overcrowding. 

Too much emphasis cannot be placed on the importance of preventing the overcrowding of 
growing chicks. With an ordinary sized brood with a hen there is practically no possibility of 
overcrowding while the chicks are small, but after the chicks are weaned they grow so rapidly 
that a coop that was adequate when they were eight weeks old, may be entirely too small 
wnen they are twelve. A great many poultrymen leave their chicks, after weaning, in the 
small coops in which they were kept with the hen. This practice sometimes works all right, 
but is uncertain, depending much on the disposition of the chicks in each lot. If, when they 
rind the coop too small and close, they sit on the ground outside, or on the coop itself, no over- 
crowding will occur, but if they all push into the coop and pile up there, one warm night 
will spoil many weeks of good growth. 

There is special need of guarding against overcrowding when chicks are kept in coops or 
bouses that are closed at night. Many coops or houses are so constructed that it is not possible 
-uch circulation of air into them on sultry nights as there should be to give the chicks 
what fresh air they need. 

Fresh air they must have. They can no more thrive without it than without food. It is 
because so many poultrymen fail to provide ventilation suitable to warm weather conditions 
that BO many lots of chicks that start well in the spring are spoiled in the summer. The 
number so injured, and the total loss in consequence, are very much greater every year than 
anyone who has not looked into the matter would believe. 

(hicks can be kept (roostj in quite small coops provided there is free circulation of air, but 
if the chicks are to be confined where air does not circulate freely the number that will do well 
in a place is hardly greater than the number of adult fowls that would be considered right in 
that place. 

Keep the Chicks Growing. 

A well known poultry writer is accustomed to assert that the secret of success in winter egg 
production is to keep the chicks growing from the shell to maturity. That may not be all there 
is of it. Looking over the subject we can see other essentials not included in his view, but it 
certainly is of great importance to have the chicks develop steadily without check or setback. 

To insure this there must be constant attention to the wants of the chick. Now I do not 



/ 



58 FIB ST LESSONS IN POULT BY KEEPING. 

mean by this that the attendant must be forever doing something for them. On the contrary I, 
think chicks will stand a great deal of judicious letting alone. But the attendant must see that 
the chicks want nothing, lack for nothing essential to their comfort and development. 

They need alternate shade and sunshine. They need good water, and all they want of it. It 
should be before them all the time. There should always be food available for every chick to 
get all it will eat, and while a great variety is not necessary there should be sufficient variety to 
give the necessary proportions of grain, vegetable and meat foods. If these are supplied 
freely the chick balances the ration for itself. Too often the meat and vegetable foods are sup- 
plied spasmodically. This is especially the case when chicks are kept in close quarters and 
dependent upon the attendant for everything they get. While growing they need good feeding 
even more than after maturity. A hen of good constitution may go underfed fos quite a long 
time and not suffer permanent harm, but a chick that is underfed fails to grow, and practical 
poultrymen agree that chicks of this kind are made up of subsequent good care and feeding so 
rarely that practically such injuries are irreparable. 

Late Hatched Chicks. 

For many years the idea prevailed that chicks hatched late in the season could not make the 
development of the earlier chicks, and that late chicks were as a rule not profitable. Gradually 
this notion has broken down as poultrymen find that given breeding stock in as good condition, 
given the same care the early chicks had, and above all, given fresh ground to start on, and not 
ground contaminated by the early chicks, late chicks will thrive as well as early ones, and will 
have made as good growth at corresponding ages. 

The first difficulty is to get the stock in good condition late in the breeding season, and it is 
quite hard to do this with hens except such as have had a rest during the spring. 






% 




FIR S 7 ' L E s s ( ) X s I X P O UL 1 'R ) ' K E E VIS U . 59 



LESSON VIII. 

Points to be Considered in Poultry House Con 

struction. 






AS I THOUGHT over the matters to be taken up in this lesson, and tried to determine 
the most suitable title for it, it seemed to me at first that it would be most apth 
described as a discussion of principles of poultry house construction. But when I 
began to inquire which of the propositions I might produce in this connection I 
could call "principles," I concluded that that was a word which might as well be omitted, for 
there are very few of the customs and methods of building, or styles and plans of houses for 
poultry, that are so universally accepted that one is warranted in designating them as prin- 
ciples, or laws. Those upon which agreement is most "general still lack very much of being 
even common rules. jr 

Occasionally we find a certain kind or type of poultry house prevailing in a certain territory, 
or used by many because highly recommended oy someone whose opinion is regarded as 
authoritative, but, taking poultry houses as they come, the more one sees of them the more 
" the wonder grows" that so great variety of plans should be devised for buildings for the 
simple purpose of affording shelter for fowls. It should be said, though, that the greater 
number of these houses, and especially the " freak" buildings, wers not designed by people who 
had had experience in handling fowls. This is a matter the reader would do well to keep in mind 
when examining poultry houses, and listening to the opinions their owners express of them; 
and if an odd plan or feature attracts their attention, it is well for them to ascertain whether 
it wa> designed before the owner began to keep poultry, or after some experience with various 
styles of poultry houses. 

Why the Housing Problem Sometimes Becomes Difficult. 

It is almost impossible to make a single poultry house for a small flock that will not, with 
reasonable use, give fair to good satisfaction. 

When, however, the owner of such a satisfactory small house makes it the unit in a system 
of houses for a large flock of poultry, he very often gets buildings that are far from satisfac- 
tory — an inconvenient feature that seemed trifling in the single house becomes intolerable when 
multiplied by ten, twenty, or perhaps fifty, while features of construction or design which were 
unobjectionable in the single small house, work altogether differently when applied on a larger 
scale. ' 

To illustrate: A one pen house may be 16 or 20 feet wide, and with windows in the end-, 
and three-fourths of the outside wall surface touched by the sun at some time of the day be dry 
anil comfortable, and sunny. But make one such pen the unit in a house containing, say, ten 
pen*, and in eight of these pens the only sunlight received comes through the windows in one 
Hide, and it is impossible to get the sunlight to the back part of a pen 16 feet wide without 
making the building high in front, thus adding to the cost without increasing the capacity. 



$0 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

Another point to consider in this connection is this: — In housing poultry we have too often a 
problem corresponding not to the housing of human families in roomy, detached dwellings, or 
of a few domestic animals in ample barns or sheds, but to the housing of population in flats and 
tenements, or to the provision for the health and comfort of human beings congregated in large 
numbers as in schools, churches and public gatherings. 

The ventilation of a dwelling house is a comparatively easy matter. Under ordinary circum- 
stances no attention need be given it but such as any sensible person will give almost instinct- 
ively. But to maintain a supply of pure air and still keep up the temperature in a school room 
where forty or fifty pupils are kept for several consecutive hours, or in a church where 500 to 
1,000 people are together for an hour or two, requires more general knowledge of the principles 
of heating and ventilation, and also special knowledge of their application to the existing con- 
ditions; and it is for want of such knowledge in those in charge of such places that bad air in 
an underventilated or drafts in an overventilated room make public places more productive of 
colds than private dwellings. 

In the poultry house, as a rule, we find much the same conditions. Nearly every poultry 
keeper either builds the smallest house possible for the number of fowls he intends to keep, or 
having a building or buildings of certain dimensions stocks them to their fullest stated capacity 
— and sometimes away beyond. And if in anything different, the conditions are harder in the 
poultry house, for the children in school are there for two relatively short periods; the people 
at a public gathering are together in the same enclosure for only a short time, while the fowls 
are often confined to the same restricted quarters day and night for months. To state the point 
in its simplest form, the artificial methods of managing fowls often make housing an intricate 
problem, when with more natural methods it would be a very simple one. 

It is for each poultry keeper to determine for himself what kind of problem in housing he 
must work out, and after presenting in this lesson general information on poultry houses, 
materials and construction, we will, in several consecutive lessons, describe houses adapted to 
a variety of conditions ranging from the simplest to somewhat complex, but stopping quite a 
long way from the limit in that direction. 

\. J* 

Methods of Housing Laying and Breeding Stock. 

In systems of housing adult fowls, we have at one extreme the colony plan, which, in its sim- 
plest form, consists in placing small houses for flocks of a few dozen fowls far enough apart to 
obviate the use of fences, and give the flocks free range with very little mingling of fowls 
from different flocks; and, at the other extreme, a connected series of houses, each containing 
many pens which connect each with the adjoining pens, or all open on covered walks running 
the entire length of each house. In what we call the extreme type in this house arrangement, 
the various accessory buildings of the plant are located in such manner, and so connected with 
the poultry houses, as to make it possible to do all the work under cover. 

The number of possible plans and arrangements between these two extremes is unlimited. 
To enumerate fully the common and familiar house plans would make quite a formidable look- 
ing list. We will discuss here only a few of the most popular, the most useful, and the most 
interesting plans and arrangements. Some of the latter class call for notice not because of the 
merit of the plans, but because their features seem to appeal very strongly to novices in poultry 
culture. 

We classify the houses we are to discuss, then, as follows: 

1. As to Position of Pens or Compartments. 

(a). Single Pen Houses. 

Usually these are small houses, the ordinary one pen poultry house having a floor 

area of about 100 sq. ft., but sometimes they are large enough for flocks of 100 or 

more, with floor area of 500 to 1,000 sq. ft. 
(b). Two (or more) Pen Houses With Connecting Pens. 

This is the most common arrangement where a few small flocks are to kept in the 

same building. 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



61 



2. 




(c). Two (ok more) Pen Bouses With Walks Extending the Length of the 
Souse, and Access to Each Pen Separately from the Walk. 

This Is the most common arrangement where more thau a few email flocks are 
kept In the same building. 
Position of the Walk. 

Iu a house facing south with one row of pens, it Is customary to put the walk 
along the back or nortb wide, but occasionally the walk Is put in front. This latter 
arrangement seems to me to have little to recommend it, and iu many huudreds of 
houses that I have in- 
spected, I have seen 
not more than two or 
three with walk in 
front. 

In a house with two 
rowsot pens, the walk 
must be iu the midd 
Such a house may lace 
south. In that ease, 
the south pens in front 
of the walk should 
have low roof pitched 

to the south, the north Semi-Monitor Top Roof. 

pens a high roof pitched to the north, as shown in the accompanying cut. Or the 
pens may face east and west, the length of the building running north and south, 
and the walk in the middle the entire length of the building. 

I dou't think the walk in the middle is ever found very satisfactory, except in 
comparatively short houses. The east and west front does not work well where 
winters are severe, but where winters are mild and summers oppressively warm, its 
faults are not serious in winter, while, as a summer house, it is superior. 

As to Construction of House With Reference to Methods of 
Handling Fowls. 

(a). Ordinary Closed Houses. 

That is, houses with doors and windows arranged w T ith reference only to ingress and 

egress, ami to light, 
(b). Open Front Scratching Shed Houses. 

In this type of house eaeh house, or each section in a series of pens, consists of two 

compartments, a closed roosting room, and, connecting with it, a scratching shed 

.with open front. 
(c). Scratching Room Houses. • 

This type of house is intermediate between the other two, and is by all odds the best type 
devised to date. It differs from the ordinary closed house in having doors and windows 
designed to give it when open all the advantages of the open front scratching shed, while 
when closed in bad w 7 eather they make it a close house and more suitable to such condi- 
tions than the open front shed. It has the additional advantage of giving greater capa- 
city than the double compartment scratching shed plan. In that plan poultrymen found 
in practice that the capacity of a section was no greater than the capacity of the scrateh- 
ing shed, in which the hens passed most of their time. The most common dimensions in 
such houses have been 10 x 18 ft. sections divided into roosting room 8 x 10 ft., and 
scratching shed 10 x 10 ft. By removing the partition and throwing the two compart- 
ments into one the capacity became the capacity of the floor of the entire section. 
Why "Scratching" Shed and Room ?— Most readers whose interest in poultry culture dates 
not more than a few years back will have some curiosity to know how the term "scratching" 
has come to be given so much emphasis in connection with housing systems. The object of the 
open front scratching shed was to make a special place for fowls to take air and exercise 



62 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



together, the floor being littered with hay, straw, or some such material into which the grain 
was thrown and the fowls obliged to scratch for it. The practice is so general now that many 
will be surprised to learn that so recently as ten years ago there were probably several poultry- 
men making no provision for exercise to every one who did make such provision. In the 
ordinary closed house the floor is of ten littered to furnish exercise, though there is not the same 
provision for fresh air as in the so-called scratching room house. 

3. Styles of Roofs. 

In describing these we will consider only roof plans for which there Is a practical rea- 
son. In these we may have :— 
(a). The Single Pitch Shed Roof Sloping North. 

With this style of roof we may have either a moderately high (for a poultry house) 
front (or south) wall, and a low rear wall, or if we wish the wall at the back of o'rdinary 
height, the front wall must be quite high. Houses are sometimes built the latter way, 
but it is not an economical plan, and. has, on the whole, no special advantage, 
(b). The Single Pitch Shed Roof Sloping South. 

This plan is more popular for brooder houses than for houses for laying stock, though 
one may find a good many houses for adult stock built with such roofs, 
(c). The Double Pitch Roof With Equal Sides Pitching North and South. 
This is probably more generally used than all other styles of roofs combined. 




Monitor Top Roof Poultry House. 

(d). The Double Pitch Roof With Equal Sides Pitching East and West. 

This plan of course is out of the question on long houses running east and west, but 
it could be used to good advantage much oftener than it is on small houses, as will 
appear in some of the house plans to be given in following lessons, 
(e). The Double Pitch Roof With One Long and One Short Pitchy 

This is often used on low houses with walk at one side, the short pitch being over the 
walk, 
(f). The Monitor Top Roof . 
(g). The Semi-Monitor Top Roof. 
The last two styles should be considered only when peculiar conditions make it neces- 
sary to build houses of such styles. 

Height of Walls.— The poultry house should be high enough to allow a man of average 
height to work comfortably in it at any work that has to be done there. The relative height of 
Dpposite walls will depend on the roof plan, or vice versa. 

It is a mistake to try to economize in material, or to make houses warmer by making them too 
low for convenience of those doing the work in them. 

4. Quality of Construction. 

Many poultry houses are bunt much better than is necessary, either because the builder 
thinks that the more substantial building will be easier to operate, or because be wants the 
building done once for all. It is better to begin with the least expensive buildings that wili 



ri/;sr lessons i\ POULTRY KEEPING. 68 

answer the purpose. Then there is no capital unnecessarily fled up in buildings, and if — as 
is very likely to be the ease — the poultry man with added experience thinks it advisable to build 
differently, he can do so, altering or replacing a cheap building, when he could not change or 
do away with an expensive one. 

A low cost building need not be unsightly. If neatly built, painted, and the surroundings 
orderly and well kept, it may present a much better appearance than a better building not so 
well cared for. 

Keeping what has been said in mind, and noting that the expensive house is built because 
the poultry man wants it, not because the fowls need it, we note these classes of construction: 
(a). SINGLE Boards, With OR Without Battens. 
(b). Single Boards Covered With One ok Two Thicknesses Building 

Paper or Roofing. 
(c). Single Boards Covered With Taper and Shingled, or Covered With 
Lapped Siding or Matched Limber, Making a Solid Double Wall 
(d). Double Boards With Dead Air Space Between, the Outer Wall 
Covered With Paper, Prepared Roofing, or Shingles. 
Of these constructions, b. and c. are the most common. The framework for such buildings 
is very light— only what is necessary to hold it together. 

Poultry houses may also be built of almost any material used for other buildings, except such 
material as the corrugated iron often used for cheap warehouses. I would not say positively 
that that form of construction could not be made satisfactory, but the few attempts to use it 
I have seen have not given good results. 

Poultry houses are also often built of discarded material of various kinds, not ordinarily used 
for building purposes. Very serviceable buildings are made of old railroad ties laid or set on 
end close together, and the interstices chinked with clay or mortar, as in the log houses of earlier 
day*. 

In sections where stone is abundant the rear waPI, (especially if the house is set into a bank), 
is often, and sometimes the end walls also, built of stone, and the whole building may be of 
>tone or brick if desired ; but unless it can be built without cash outlay for labor this is too 
expensive where economy has to be considered. /■ 

5. Capacity and Dimensions. 

one of the first points to be considered is the capacity of a house of certain dimensions, or 
thp dimensions required to give a desired capacity. 

Floor Space per Fowl.— The common rule is five or six square feet of floor space per fowl. 
Tbia is for ordinary sized flocks of one dozen to, say, three or four dozen. For a smaller 
number of fowls more floor space per fowl should be given, for a larger flock the space per 
fowl may be somewhat reduced, for while it is customary to estimate poultry house capacity 
according to average square feet of floor space per fowl, that way is misleading if the aver- 
age for flocks of ordinary numbers is made the basis of a general rule. 

Each fowl in a flock has the use, in house and yard room, of aH the house or yard area not 
actually occupied by its companions. That is, the fowl practically has the use of the entire 
bouse and yard, and while with a flock of ten hens in a house containing 60 sq. ft. floor space, 
the average for each hen is 6 sq. ft., each hen really has the use of 60 sq. ft. of floor, and has 
much more room than a single hen in a house, giving her 20 or 30 sq. ft. floor space all to 
herself. 

Cubic Spore per Fowl. — This need not be numerically reckoned. In a house with floor 
*pace right for the number of fowls to be kept in it, and with height right for the workman, 
there will be air space enough if ventilation is properly done. 

Proportions of Floor. — For the maximum of floor space at the minimum cost, a building 
should be square. To make a building of many pens square, or even approximately so, is 
Obviously out of the question, and as buildings for poultry are usually constructed with side 
walls about 6 ft. high, if of equal height, and averaging about 6 ft., if the walls are of unequal 
height, the depth, from south to north, of a house facing south, and having windows only in 
the south side, cannot be more than twelve or thirteen feet, and have the sun reach every part 
of the floor at some time of day. A wider house must be higher, or the parts not reached by 
the sun will be often damp and musty. 



64 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

Now if we establish the depth of a house, or the width of each pen, at 12 ft., and make Hit 
pen square, we get too short a frontage for each pen, when the length of the pen is to be the 
same as the width of the yard connecting with it, as it must be generally in a long house con- 
taining many pens. So to suit the yards better, as well as to get the largest capacity in each 
compartment that we can, we make the pens in a long house slightly oblong, and in length, 11, 
16, or possibly 18 ft, but not more than 18 ft. in a house 12 ft. wide, because the longer a pen 
is made in proportion to its width, the narrower it becomes in proportion to its capacity, and a. 
flock of fowls is disturbed a. great deal more by an attendant moving about in a long narrow 
pen or yard than in a nearly'square one, where the distance they can keep from the attendant 
is always about the same. . 

Planning buildings and small yards with reference to this simple point, will save the poultry 
keeper a great deal of future annoyance in his work with his fowls. 

Width of House With a Walk — For a poultry house with pens 12 ft. wide, 3 or 4 ft. 
should be added to the width, if it is to have a walk. If a walk is used at all it Is a good 
plan to add 4 ft., which gives a walk about 3 ft. 6 in. wide, this clear without taking anything 
from the pens. A 3 ft. walk is rather narrow. 

6. About Foundations and Floors. 

The common, cheaply constructed poultry house, if placed on a well drained spot, needs no 
foundation or underpinning. The sills may rest on the earth, leveled to receive them, while 
the floor is of earth filled in to the level of the top of the sills. The sills rot out in time, but in 
the judgment of some of our best poultrymen,it is much cheaper to replace them than to try to 
keep them from rotting, while the opinion that a poultry house must have the floor elevated 
enough to keep it always very dry is gradually dying out. 

If one wants to build foundations of stone or brick, or to set buildings on cedar posts and fill 
the floor to the depth of a foot or more with stone, that is his privilege, but it is expensive and 
is rarely really necessary when a house is placed on a suitable site. If the site is defective, that 
of course is another matter. 

For floors there is nothing so good as earth renewed once or twice a year, and there are few 
places where fowls are kept that it is not possible to get fresh earth as needed. The labor of 
renewing the floors is more than paid for by the advantage of the earth floor, and, for one who 
has a garden, by the complete saving of the manure dropped in the house and the thorough 
composting of manure, earth and litter. In situations not the best for poultry, a floor may be 
necessary, and may be of wood, cement, or brick. 

7. Building Materials. 

Mention has been made incidentally of — I think — all the common building materials. The 
low cost poultry house in any section is, as a rule, constructed of wood, and of the cheapen 
lumber obtainable in that section. 

If it is to be of a single thickness of boards, some attention should be given to selection of 
lumber, and the boards for the walls surfaced on one side; but this need not add materially to 
the cost, for by a little care an ordinary lot of boards will answer, the best being selected for 
the sides, while inferior boards are worked into the roof or inside partitions. 

For a building to be covered with shingles or building paper, the cheapest and roughest of 
lumber will answer. 

Shingles. — In buying shingles it generally pays to buy good quality because they go further, 
and the labor of putting them on is less than for inferior grades made up largely of narrow 
shingles, and containing many that have to be rejected, and when laid they remain in good con- 
dition very much longer. 

Prepared " Roofings."— Within the last few years very much better grades of this class of 
goods have been put on the market, and where a few years ago I would have unhesitatingly 
aflirmed that shingles were in the long run the best and most economical covering for a moder- 
ate cost poultry house, what I have seen of such materials as Ruberoid and Paroid roofimrs 
makes me think it wise not to be too positive. I am not prepared to say how these goods will 
wear with shingles, nor can I give here the comparative cost, but will go into the matter in 
detail in connection with one of the house plans to be given. 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING, 65 

Putting Honey in Poultry Buildings. 

In concluding this lesson I want to ur^e it on every prospective builder with all the emphasis* 
possible, that the best policy Is to put into poultry buildings only what money is absoiuiely 
necessary. The general tendency of beginners is toward comparative extravagance In build- 
ings and too great economy in stock, while very few provide for the reserve of working capital 
which they need. 

In many cases the money unnecessarily put into buildings, or put into buildings before they 
were needed, would have given the poultryman the working capital he needed for expenses 
while bringing his plant up to a profit paying basis. 

Remember that if you fail your fine house is as near as anything can be to a dead loss, while 
If yon succeed you can replace your cheap buildings by better ones designed as, with your suc- 
cessful experience you know you want them. 








66 



FIBST LESSONS IN P0UL1BY KtiEFIXU. 



LESSON IX. 

Two Plain Cheap Poultry Houses of Simple Con 

struction. 



IX THIS lesson I will describe and explain the construction of two poultry houses I have 
been using — the single house for three, the other for four years. I take up these plans 
first for two reasons: A good many readers of these lessons are asking what kind of 
house I prefer; the construction is about as simple as it is possible to make it, and the 
cost about as low as it can be made in a house built of new material without patching. 

In some places short cheap boards (box boards) may be obtained, and with them houses 
may be built at less cost per fowl than in these houses, but the boards are very often of such 
quality that a house built of them needs to be covered with something else to make it look 
well, to say nothing of making it tight — if that is considered necessary. 




A House for a Dozen Fowls. 



FIBS.T LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 67 

A House for a Dozen Fowls. 

The accompanying Illustration shows a small bouse that I bulk in the fall of 1902. I bad 
two broods of chicks batched the last of June that bad run together all summer, making their 
night quarters in an old dry goods box, and having the run of about an acre of mowing land. 
When they outgrew the dry goods box, all other accommodations were full, and I was very 
busy and had little time to plan or build. The house was designed almost impromptu, and 
built in the spare time of a few days. I did not try to keep account of time, but think it 
\\ ts about a day's work, as I did the work piecemeal ami alone. Originally I had no thought 
oi making it a model, or building others like it. In fact, intended to use it only for the 
ehicks for which it was built until I had room for them elsewhere, and afterwards to use it 
as an extra house for any purpose for which a building of its size would be convenient, as 
tor sitting hens, fattening cockerels, breaking up broodies, for a small breeding pen, to store 
leaves in, for any such use, or — if not needed — let it stand idle. It seemed so very satisfactory 
in use, however, that I afterward built one other like it — except in one particular in which the 
change does not apper to be an advantage — and from experience with these two houses 1 
would — for my own use — make this the model for small colonies of fowls. 

Dimensions and Materials. 

This house is S ft. square on the ground; 4 ft. high at the sides; 7 ft. high in the middle. 

It has only a part of a frame of dimension stuff. No upright studs or posts are used 
except at the door, and these are not absolutely necessary. It is built with 2 x 6 in. stuff for 
sills, 2x3 in. stuff for plates, rafters, and other frame parts; is covered with common hemlock 
boards surfaced on one side, is battened on the back and half way forward on each side, and 
the roof is shingled over a close covering of boards. 

The material for this house cost me $12 (approximately). I was buying other lumber at the 
same time, and used out of the general supply, and it is quite likely that in cutting up for 
this house, and other purposes at the same time, I used some odds and ends, and made th*» 
actual cost slightly less than I have figured it in the list of materials given below. In many- 
places the lumber could be bought much cheaper than in the immediate vicinity of Boston. 
Lumber (except shingles) for this house cost me about 10% more than for the next house to be 
described in this lesson, which was built the year before. Shingles cost 20% more. 

List of Materials and Prices When House Was Built. 

2 pieces hemlock, 2 x 6 x 16, 32 sq. ft. 
4 pieces hemlock, 2 x 3 x 16, 32 sq. ft. 

3 pieces hemlock, 2 x 3 x 10, 15 sq. ft. 

79 sq. it. ft, $20 per M., 
250 sq. ft. hemlock boards <cb $20 per M., 
4-5 M. 2d clear shingles <cb $3 per M., 
Rattens, 

Sash 

Nails, hinges, hooks, etc., 

Total, $11 58 

That $11.58 is about as near as I can estimate it now, and is close enough. We will call the 
c<>>t of the house, for material, in round ti<;iire> $12. The cost of building should not exceed 
*.">. giving U3 the total cost of the house $15, not the cheapest possible house, but a neat looking 
serviceable building at a relatively very low cost. 

How to Build the House. 

The two pieces of 2 x 6 x 16 are for the sills. I have given the ground dimensions of the 
house as 8 ft. sq. As a matter of fact the house is B ft. by b ft. 4 Id. on the ground. That is 
the measurement from outside to outside of sills. 



$1 58 


5 00 


2 40 


1 00 


60 


1 00 



68 FIB ST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

It happens this way : When we cut each 16 ft. piece in two, giving us the four pieces for 
the sills, and put them together, nailing the side sills, which we call b b to the end sills, a a r 
we have our sill frame 4 in. longer one way than the other. To get the same dimensions both 
ways we would have to cut the pair of sill pieces to which the other pair is nailed 4 inches 
shorter. The difference is comparatively insignificant, but in building poultry houses, coops, 
nests, etc., I have always tried to follow the principle of taking advantage of little points like 
this whenever the lumber allowed. There is a slight gain in room, and also a slight increase 
in cost. The gain in room may not, in every case, be proportionate to the increase in cost, but 
in general I think the rule will be found a good one. 

The sill frame should be nailed together with large spikes, the pieces being set on edge, not 
laid flat. Nail each corner with one nail first, then square up the frame, usiug a steel square at 
the corners and bracing pieces in position with temporary brace across each corner as indicated 
by the dotted piece. 

If your lumber is not perfectly straight and true you may find it difficult to get the frame 
square. In that case measure 6 ft. from any corner along one side, then take a 10 foot straight 
pole, or strip of furring, and measure from this point to a point 8 ft. from the same corner on 
the adjoining side. To have your angle a true right angle, the point 6 ft. from the angle on one 
side must be just 10 ft. from the point 8 ft. from the corner on the adjoining side, your 10 ft. 
measure forming the hypothenuse of a right angle triangle. 

Have your sill frame approximately square, (a very slight variation due to crooked lumber is 
not material) then nail the corners firmly and the braces fast. 

Now put the sill frame in just the position it is to occupy, level it up and block it solidly in 
position. If it is on uneven ground, and to put the whole floor above the level of the highest 
point would make too much filling, dig out the higher side and part way across the ends as 
much as seems advisable, making the resting place for the sills level, then block up on the lower 
side. 

We are ready now to begin on one side. First nail to the sills the two end boards c c, 4 ft. 
long, letting them project 1 in. beyond the corner to come flush with the face of the end boards 
d d when they are put on. For these as well as for the corner boards on the ends of the house 
select good, clear strong boards. Be sure your boards c c are perpendicular to the sill to which 
they are nailed, and then put short braces n n to hold them perpendicular to the end sills. 

Now put the plate p in position, the upper side of the plate being about half an inch above 
the end of the boards c c, to allow the first board of the roof to project over the side, and nail 
the upper ends of the boards c c to it. The piece o may also be put on now, its exact position 
to be determined by the height of the window. In my house this piece was about 6 ft. long, 
only its use in connection with the window being considered, but when I came to put in the 
roost I found that the use of a short piece was a mistake. Make the piece o the length of the 
side of the house; your sash will then rest, and slide on it, and the ends of the roosts can also 
rest on o o. 

Nail on the board which comes next the window about the middle of the side, taking care to 
have the plate p and the stringer o in correct position. The tendency will be for both to sag a 
little in the middle. Use the level and keep them true. The distance from this board to the 
board at the front corner is the width of the window opening, and should be an inch and a half 
less than the width of sash. Put the other side up the same way. 

Now the building is ready for the rafters, of which but three pair are required, one at each 
end and one half way between. To cut these nail a short strip of board x x at right angles to 
a longer strip of board y y, as at D in the illustration. Make a line through the middle of the 
short board x x to a point 3 ft. from the edge of y y. This gives the position of the apex of 
the roof. Now from the point where the line x x meets the edge of the board y y measure in 
each direction one half the length of the end of the house. In my house this is 4 ft. 2 in. In a 
housed ust 8 ft. square it would be 4 ft. 

Now take a piece of 2 x 3 and lay it on your pattern so that one end and edge come at x, and 
the same edge crosses the board y y at g; and with a straight edge mark the lines x x and y y 
on the rafter. Saw on these lines and you have a correct pattern if your measurements are- 



FJBJST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

d d P 



69 




• 


c 


B 




W 


c 










Details of Construction of House for a Dozen Fowls. 

A-sill plan, with position of comer boards indicated at c c c c, d d d d. E-constructlon of a coiner. B-side. 
C— front. D— method of cutting pattern for rafters. t 

correct, and you saw straight. You may if you prefer make a pattern of inch or lighter stuff. 
In either case having made the pattern from the upper x to one y, try it to the other one and 
make sure that you are right before you cut all your rafters. 

If the builder of such a small house has an assistant when putting up the rafters it is easy. If 
he is working alone it is a good plan to nail the rafters together at the apex, and put a short brace 
serosa them near the apex, while on the ground, then put the pair in position together and nail 
the lower ends to the plates. 

The Btringer m m indicated by the dotted lines in C may now be put in position. Next put 
in the Btudsj j which make the door frame sides and the cross piece i at the top. Cut the ends 
of j j to tit sill and rafters, and let the face of the studs come flush with the face of sill and 
rafters. In my house the studs are each 1 ft. from the center of the end, and the door is 
5 ft. T in. high. 

The "frame" of the building is now complete. 

Before nailing the rest of the boards on the sides, put the lowest board on each side 
of the roof, letting them project 2 in. beyond the boards c c on the sides, and the ends come 
flu>h with the faces of the boards d d on the ends. If you do this you put the boards on 
the >ides snug up against the roof projection, and there is no fitting to be done as there might 
be if the side boards were all put on first. If you neglected to have the ends of the side 
boards lower than the upper edge of the plate, you will find that they prevent the first roof 
board from going into the position you want it in, flat on the rafters and projecting 2 in. 
bevond the side. 

It makes no difference whether the rest of the roof is put on before the sides and ends or 
after. Leave joints about half an inch wide between the boards on both sides (and ends) 
and roof if you wish. If the boards happen to be of such width that wider joints will suit 
better, they may be as much as an inch wide on the front, or wherever they are to be 



70 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

covered with battens, but where there are no battens on tbe sides, (principally the short board* 
below the window), put the boards closer together to prevent snow drifting in. Too wide 
joints on east and west sides may admit a good deal of snow. 

On the front let the boards next the door come only to the middle of the edge of the stud on 
either side, and those above the door pnly to the middle of the cross piece. Before beginning 
to shingle the roof nail strips of batten on the ends as a finish, as shown in the Illustration,, 
and make the edge of the shingles project half an inch beyond these, and the first course of 
shingles project two inches beyond the lower board of the roof on the side. Lay shingles five 
inches to the weather. If you have never done any shingling it will be worth your while to 
take a lesson in the art from a practical carpenter. Observe how he " breaks joints," so that 
one joint shall not correspond with the nearest above or below it. Observe also that he does 
not lay the shingles close, but allows a little space for them to swell when wet. If shingles 
are laid too close they swell and bulge up when wet. 

The back of the house is battened, and the sides are battened half way forward, thus covering 
the joints to a point a little forward of the roost. Before battening the sides, nail a strip of 
batten, corresponding with the strip under the shingles on the ends, snug up against the under 
side of the roof projection. 

To finish the window, make the boards below it project an inch above the stringer o, and 
nail a short piece of furring to the plate p above the window, opening and projecting an inch 
below the plate. Now if your sash is a close fit, a> lath tacked to o, and another to p, to hold 
the sash in place, make all the finish necessary, and the window slides easily back and forth. 
If the sash is rather loose between the stringers, use an inch piece for an upper stop. 

To make the door take boards of the required length, having an aggregate width of one inch 
more than the distance between j j, thus allowing a lap of half an inch all around, and nail 
two cross pieces, two inches shorter than the width of the door at top and bottom, making the 
top one about six inches from top of door; the bottom one eight or nine inches from bottom. 
On so narrow a door no diagonal brace is needed. I have generally screwed cross pieces on, 
^buton this door they are nailed with 6d. wire nailes clinched, and after nearly three years 
exposure the door is good. 

A Good Cheap House for a Stock of 75 Fowls.. 

This house I describe here, not as I am now using it, but as I first built it; because I 
think it likely that a great many readers will be more interested in a house to fit the con- 
ditions I then had to consider than in one adapted to my present needs. After giving descrip- 
tion of the house as originally built, I will mention changes made in it on removal to present 
location. 

The house was built late in the fall of 1901, on a leased place from which I moved 
two years later. The fact that I would probably want to move it with in a few years, and 
perhaps move it some distance, had to be considered in some points of construction. 

The diagram is for a house 12 ft. wide and 40 ft. long. At the east end of the house 
12 ft. square is two stories high, the upper story being used for pigeons. The one story part, 
the dimensions of which are 12 x 28 ft., is divided into two pens, each 12 x 14 ft. The 
first floor of the two story part is divided in the middle from front to back, and the east 
half again divided in the middle at right angles with the first partition, giving on the ground 
floor of the two story part a pen G x 12, a smaller pen 6x6, and an entry and tool room 6x6. 

The one story part of the house is 6 ft. 2 in. high from the lower edge of the sill to the top 
of the plate. The extra two inches is taken because the lumber would allow it. The posts 
being cut from 12 ft. stuff, and the plates being spiked on top of the posts, had the sides been 
just 6 ft., the posts would have been cut 5 ft. 10 in. This is what would have been done 
had it been necessary to make the boards oulside completely cover the sill, but as there was no 
need that they should, I used the posts full 6 ft. long. 

The two story part of the house is 12 ft. 2 in. from lower edge of sill to top of plate, with 
the lower edge of tbe upper floor joists 6 ft. 6 in. from top of sill. 

At B in the diagram is shown the outline of the framing for the rear wall; at C for the front; 
at D for the west end of the one story part, and at E for the east end of the two story part. 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



7t 



The sills are 2 x 6 In. stufl' set on edge and resting upon the ground. As the land lay, the 
ea>t eml of the space the house would cover was about a foot lower than the west end. 
Tbe sills at the west end were let down into the ground about 4 in., those at the east end 
blocked up. Afterwards the floor inside was filled to the level of the top of the sills, and the 
ground outside graded as required. 

The posts are of 3 x 4 in. stuff. I would have preferred 4x4 in., but the local lumber dealer 
did not have thein, so I took carefully selected pieces of what he had. The 3 x 4s are all right 




/. //. Robinson's Cheap Poultry House for 75 Fowls, as Used (he First Winter. 

lor the one «.tory part, but for the two story part they would be too light if any considerabh 
weight were to go on the upper floor. There is one of these 3x4 post* at each corner of the 
two story part, one at each west corner of the one story part, and one midway of each side of 
the low part. The plates and intermediate scantlings are of 2 x :i in. stuff. My method of 
j oining po.-ts and Bills at corners is shown at I in the cut. At II is shown in detail thejoints on 
a side of a corner post of the one story part of the house, and Q thejoints on an end corner. 

In the frame of the back of the low house the intermediate stringer divides the space between 
the top of the Bill and the bottom of the plate, making each space 2 ft. 8 in. wide. 

In the hack wall frame of the high part the top stringer is so placed that the ends of the floor 
Joists will rot upon it, and the lower stringer divides the space between the upper one and the 
Bill, making each space 3 ft. wide. 

In the framing of the front of tbe low part the upright studs, with the exceptions of the posts 
mentioned, are of 2 x 3 in. stufl'j one being placed in the middle of each pen, and the other* at 
Mich distance from it as required by the width of the doors, which here is 3 ft. 

Pieces of 2x 3 at top and bottom of window complete this frame. The Bash I used were 
second hand, bought at 60 eta. per pair. 

The front of the higher part has one stringer to correspond with the upper one in the rear 
wall, and another one parallel to it 30 in. from the lower edge of the plate, thus making the 
proper space for the upper windows to slide between the plate and this stringer. Pieces of 
2x3 studding are erected at the sides of the window in the middle of the G x 12 ft. pen, whicb 



72 



FIE ST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



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TT 



I 



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try House. 

£. 






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a ». 

s- 1 

il s 

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jyj £ 

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flUST LESSONS L\ POULTRY KEEPING. 



73 




West Pen of J. II. Robinson's Cheap Poultry House— Double Do ors Closed. 

window is a full sized window with sash to move up and down. Then there are horizontal 
pieces of the same dimensions at the bottom of the window, and from midway of either side of 
the window to the corner posts. 

On the west end of the low part the stringer is 3 ft. 10 in. from the top of the sill. 

On the east end of the high part the space from the sill to the lower edge of the first hori- 
zontal scantling is 4 ft. 6 in., and the space between this and the next scantling the same. The 
Bhort scantling above the window is simply nailed to the boards on either side, and not con- 
nected with other frame work. 

The west end of the higher part corresponds with the east end above the upper floor, 
but not below, the partition between the 6 x T2 pen and that next it being like that showu at F. 

The rafters are of 2 x 3 in. stuff, and are placed 3 ft. apart, except that between the pair 
of ratters at the east end of the low roof, and the pair next to them, the space is 4 ft. This 
was because the furring used was in 12 ft. lengths, and as I intended to lay the shingles on 
strips of furring, and wanted to select the best of the furring for this purpose, I figured 
that there would be a little less waste of material by using all 12 ft. furring, and spacing the 
rafters to suit. When I came to use the furring I found a good many split and weak ends 
which had to be discarded, so that if I were doing it over again, I think would buy all 14 ft. 
furring, and space the rafters evenly. There would be some waste in cutting the battens 
to cover the joints between the boards, but what short pieces could not be utilized on short 
joints or in piecing out on the long joints, would come in handy for something else. There is 
almost always a place found ultimately for such bits of umber. 

Tbe sides of the building are boarded up and down and battened with strips of furring. The 

'A, ground plan of house. D D, outside doors, d d, inside doors, ww, windows, rr, roosts, b, stair. B, out- 
line of frame work of rear wall. C, outline of frame of front wall; the dotted lines Indicate the position of 
iii«- windows. D, outline of frame of west end. E, outline of frame of east end. F. an Inside partition 
between pens. G, framing <>f west end at corner post, n, framing of back at comer post, i, framing of 

and -ills at comer. J, method of roof Construction at peak, explained In iIk; text. 



74 



FIRST LESSONS IN P.OULTRY KEEPING. 



boards are of hemlock, surfaced on one side. The furring is surfaced on one side, rough on one 
side and edges, and the rough side is turned in, so that, as the reader will see, the covering of 
the joint is not wind tight. It should be added that no battens are put over the joints on the 
front of the low part, as with the number of hens kept in here it is not desirable that the 
house should, at any time, be as close as it would be with the doors shut if all joints were 
battened. 

The roof is of shingles laid 5£ in. to the weather on strips of 2£ in. furring laid 3 in. apart, 
except that the first courses on each side are on 6 in. boards, which project beyond the sides 
about two inches. This makes a roof that is light and cheap, yet amply strong. The roof was 
put up with the idea that if it was ever necessary to move the building it could be easily taken 
down and set up again. With this in view, instead of directly joining the two rafters of each 
pair at the peak or ridge of the roof, or using -— as is sometimes done — a 5 or 6 in. board as a 
ridge pole, I used two strips of furring, nailing the upper one firmly to the ends of the rafters 
of one side, and the lower one to the rafters of the other side, making practically a split ridge 
pole, as shown at J, in the cut. 

As I framed the building unaided, this part of the work had to be done on the ground. The 
frame of the roof was put together on the ground in four 12-ft. sections, the rafters in each 
section being held together by the first strip of furring at the lower end, and the half of the 
ridge board attached to that section, and by two strips of furring crossed on the under side of 
the rafters. Each such section was put up with supports from the ground to the upper part 
until the lower parts of two opposite sections had been tacked to the plates. Then the supports 
were knocked out, and the upper parts fitted together, after which the ends of the rafters at the 
plates were securely nailed. All the nailing needed at the joining of the sections at the peak is 
what is required to prevent the light frame springing or slipping before all the strips of furring 
are on and nailed fast, Only one ten penny nail through each upper end of a rafter to the 
opposite rafter was used. The shingles used were "2d clear," costing $2.50 per thousand. 




West Pen of J. II. Robinson's Cheap Poultry House— Double Door* Open. 



Flh'ST LKSSO.XS LX POULTRY KEEPING* 75 

There is a little waste in shingles of this grade* but the quantity to be discarded was I » than 
1 expected, and of the rive thousand bought I had almost half a thousaud left. 

The doors the floor of the upper story, and the partition through the middle of the lower 
*tory of the two story part are of matched spruce. The object of having this partition of 
matched sturt' was to keep the dust from the pens oil* things kept In this part. The floor is laid 
on joists of 2 x 6 inch stuff, placed 2 ft. 6 in. apart from center to center. For the stairway 
two pieces of 2 x 9, 10 ft. long were used for stringers. Then nine steps, each having 8 in. rise 
and 8 In. tread. 

The Inside partitions are boarded up for 28 inches from the ground. Above that is wire 
netting. 

The roosts are of 2 x 3 inch stuff, wide side up, placed 20 inches from the ground, the roost 
next the wall being 18 inches from it, and the space between the two roosts 16 inches. The 
roosts extend the full length of each pen, thus giving in the large pens a little less than one foot 
of roost room to each fowl. There are no droppings boards. 

The construction of the outer doors Is easily seen in the illustration of the house; the only 
fastenings on the doors in the frout are hooks which, when the doors are closed, go into screw 
eyes in the stud in the middle of each wide doorway. The inside doors are fitted with springs. 
For nests empty boxes of suitable size set ou the floor are used. Some of these will be shown 
in illustrations iu connection with a future article on fixings. 

The list of materials iu this house, and cost of same, is given in tabulated form herewith. 

The list as given does not include the fitting up of the second story room for pigeons, or the 
cages for them outside, though some few odds and ends of stuff" left over have been worked in 
for that purpose. With what additional material is used to fit up the pigeons, the material in 
the completed building will come to just about $70 — will not vary more than a few cents from 
this either way. 

As I did all the work myself at odd times, I cannot give a very accurate idea of the probable 
cost of the labor if one hired the construction of such a building. It seems to me, though, that 
two good rough carpenters would do it in about three days. 

For the benefit of those who simply want the lower part, or a repetition of it in sections, I 
give here list of materials and cost for building 12 x 28, with two pens and partition in the 
middle. The two sections of this house, with a capacity of sixty hens, would cost toe m;m 
who built it himself $33.10. That is $ LIS per running foot. Perhaps a better comparison of 
the cost as with some other styles of bouse could be made on the basis of the cubic capacity of 
the house and its cost per foot, which in this house is 1£ cts. With cubic air space as cheap 
as that there does not seem to be any good excuse for not giving the hens air, and the 
attendant head room. 

J* 

List and Price* of Materials. 

6 pieces 3 x 4 x 12 72 sq. ft. 

4 pieces 2 x G x 14 56 sq. ft. 

9 pieces 2 x 6 x 12 108 sq. ft. 

25 pieces 2 x 3 x H L75 Bq, ft. 

14 pieces 2 x 3 x 12 84 Bq. ft. 

525 sq. ft. fa) $20 per M., $10 50 

1,000 sq. ft. hemlock boards, 17 nil 

500 sq. ft. furring fa) $18 per M., 9 00 

G M. 2d clear .shingles (ii $'2 60, 12 60 

6 12-llght windows (!) x 15) fl 60c. each, 3 60 

400 sq. ft. matched spruce flooring, 8 80 

Nails and screws, ;; qq 

5 pr. fi in. binges £ 10c; 5 pr. 4 in. hinges® 8c, 90 

Spring*, hook-, hasp, and staple, <;o 

Wire netting, -,o 



$66 40 



'When house was built, 11*01. 



7$ FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

Materials for Two 12 x 14 ft. Sections. 

3 pieces 3 x 4 x 12 36 sq. ft. 

4 pieces 2 x 6 x 14 56 sq. ft. 
2 pieces 2 x 6 x 12 24 sq. ft. 
8 pieces 2 X 3 x 12 48 sq. ft. 

19 pieces 2 x 3 x 14 133 sq. ft. 

297 sq ft., $5 94 

500 sq. ft. hemlock boards, 8 50 

72 sq. ft. matched spruce boards, 1 58 

300 sq. ft. furring, 5 40 

2 windows, 1 20 

3| M. shingles, 8 13 

Nails and screws, 1 50 

Hinges, hooks, etc., 60 

Wire netting, 25 

$33 10 

Changes That Have Been Made or night be Made in This House. 

If I were going to build today a two pen house of the capacity of this one, I would change 
the construction in only two points. 

The roof would be sheathed close as on the small house first described, instead of shingled on 
furring. The reason for this is that while the skeleton roof is strong enough it does not give a 
smooth, clean, easily whitewashed surface as when sheathed with wide boards laid close 
together. The advantage of having a good "ceiling" I think much more than compensates for 
the slight additional cost of the roof. 

The other point I would alter would be that in each end I would put a window, either a full 
size window in the middle of the end, or a half window near the front, that point to be deter- 
mined by the light as affected by surrounding conditions. When I moved the house I enlarged 
the windows in front, but fiud that it would have been more satisfactory to put windows in the 
«nds, and intend to change them before next winter. 

When the house was moved the larger two pen part was set up separately, and the pigeon 
house detached and made a one story house. I think that for either poultry or pigeons it is 
better to have everything on the ground floor if possible, but in case one is crowded for ground 
room it is sometimes advisable to use two story buildings. 

Another change made -iu this building after moving it was to put doors in the north side to 
allow passage for both fowls and attendant to yards north of the building used in summer. 
This change made it necessary to shorten the roosts about three feet, and board up beside the 
door to a point a little forward of the outer roost. In winter when the fowls are in yards south 
of the house the doors in the north side are nailed up. 

The Question of Cold Houses. 

It would be out of the question to enter here into such discussion of the relative merits of 
"warm" and "cold," closed and open poultry houses, which consideration of the plans I have 
given suggests. Those who have files of the paper will find a great deal said both for and 
against the idea of using such a "shed" as this or anything at all approaching It in structure. I 
will only say here that while it is not yet demonstrated that this Is the better way of housing 
fowls, and will give better results than close, warm houses, results obtained in these houses and 
the condition of the stock kept in them begin to make it necessary that one who argues against 
them should argue from practical experience with them— and also from sensible treatment of 
stock in them. 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 77 



LESSON X 



Five Good Small Poultry Houses. 



IN THE lust lessou I gave plans and descriptions of two houses that suit me for my way 
of keeping fowls and doing the work for them. In this paper I give plans for five 
small houses, furnished by as many different readers of Farm-Poultry, in response to 
an offer made to bring out good ideas of poultry house construction. These five I 
selected from a large number, as combining good plans and good statements for low cost 
poultry houses. 

Let me refer in this connection to a criticism a reader of the paper occasionally makes about 
my advocacy of low cost poultry houses. Most poultrymen want houses to cost as little as 
possible, and still be as good as necessary. It is ou the point of how good it is necessary for 
a building for fowls to be that their opinions differ. A good many people do not believe that 
fowls can be comfortable, contented, and productive in such houses as I use — and will not 
believe it until they try it. Others think that while these houses may suit my breed, they would 
not suit theirs — and probably they will not believe until they have gradually learned that the 
requirements of a breed are not absolute, but that the stock can be adapted — hardened in this 
— to the conditions made for it, and that when once "acclimated" to the cold house, 
fowls may do as well or better in it than iu warm houses. 

However, houses warmer and tighter than those described in the last lesson can be built at 
very little more cost. Where lumber is cheap they may be built at less than mine cost. We 
may have cheap warm houses as well as cheap cold ones, but always, and for all poultrymen, 
I am an advocate of cheap low cost poultry houses, and this for two good reasons : — 

(1). Because every dollar unnecessarily tied up in buildings is a handicap on the profitable 
operation of the plant. 

(2). Because costly expensive buildings always seem to me inappropriate for live stock. 

If a man wants to build expensive poultry houses, I feel that it is better he should look else- 
where for the expensive features at least. The plain, simple plans I give will, of course, work 
just as well if worked out in more expensive material, and if that is all that is wanted, an 
architect's or builder's services are more useful at that stage than those of a poultryman — pro- 
vided always the builder or architect does not make some change to suit his ideas of what is 
correct from his point of view, but wrong from a poultryman's. That is the point to guard 
against when professional builders begin to improve the plans of poultrymen. 

So because the great majority of readers of these lessons want to build economically, as well 
as because I have myself no interest in costly hen houses, I will introduce into these lessons no 
plans of poultry houses having features which poultrymen generally would agree were super- 
fluous, or calling for expenditure which would be commonly considered extravagant. 

In presenting the following plans 1 will give the descriptions as furnished with the plans, 
except where it is a9 well to condense ; and where there seems to be occasion for comment on a 
plan or statement, will make such comment immediately after. 



78 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

A New Jersey Farmer's House for Twenty=five Fowls. 

Grant Davis, Whitehouse, N. J. 

Of plans of hen houses there are no end. Many are good, but many more fail as to the two 
maiu points of a good poultry house : First, dryness ; and second, a plain, smooth interior 
surface. I have tried various kinds, but have settled upon the following plan, which, I think, 
meets the requirements of a first class house, at the same time being- plain and economical. 

I build for poultry on the larm, and make the houses 12 ft. by 18 ft. or 21 ft., for accommo- 
dating forty to fifty hens. For twenty-five hens the house may be built in identically the same 
way, and smaller in proportion. As estimates of costs are wanted, I will make my figures on a 
building 9 ft. by 12 ft. In height it is 6 ft. at the back and 8 ft. in front, with a roof of one 
slope. Pillars are set in the ground for a foundation and to receive sills 4 x 5 in. in size. The 
enclosure is of novelty siding or ship lap, and is boarded horizontally. The studding are 2 
inches square, and placed 18 inches apart. The roof is sheathed with second class lumber, and 
covered with roofing paper or ruberoid. 

To have a hen house that is always dry it is necessary to have double walls with an air space 
between. With a single en- /X /*>. 

closure moisture will sometimes 
be condensed upon the walls, 
and at times will make the 
house damp in spite of any- 
thing that can be done. A 
damp house, whether it comes 
from a leaky roof, condensed 
air moisture, or capillary water 
from a ground floor, will soon <£ 
take the profits out of the O* 
winter egg business. A double 
enclosure also gives greater 
warmth, as the dead air space, 
being a non-conductor of heat, 
serves to prevent its escape at 
night. The added cost of this 
kind of building, as ordinarily 
made, is against it, but, as here 
constructed, the COSt is not much Ground Plan of Mr. Davis'' Poultry House. 

increased. D, Droppings boards. R, R, Roosts. 

The building having been made as described, the inner wall is made by simply nailing on to 
the studding a stiff building paper, something strong that the fowls cannot pick to pieces, and 
that will take whitewash readily. As this generally comes 36 inches in width, and enough more 
to allow for lap, I have put my studding the proper distance to receive. The ceiling is also 
covered in the same way. Where the lap comes a liberal application of coal tar is made, so 
that on the whole interior surface of the house there will be no hiding place for lice or mites. 
The ease with which such a house can be whitewashed is a strong point in its favor. 

After the interior covering is put on, a panel of 1 x 3 in. boards is nailed all around the inside 
about 4 ft. from the floor to hold the roosting poles and to receive the nails on which hang the 
movable nesting boxes. The roosting poles, two in number, will extend across the narrow 
way of the house, and the space beneath them is cut off from the remaining floor space by a 
board. Straw is kept here, and the droppings are occasionally dusted with land plaster to 
keep down odors, as they are not removed oftener than once or twice every month. 

There are no droppings boards, no rows of nests built to the walls, in fact, nothing but 
what can be easily removed when the time comes for the semi-annual whitewashing. 

I do not put in board floors on account of extra cost. The ground within the building is 
graded up eight or ten inches higher than that outside, and the surface Is covered loosely with 
any old boards — discarded weather boarding is good— and then sand is hauled in to the depth 





fibst lessons ix ron/ruY keepusq. 



71) 



of three inches. The floor is 
then always dry and warm, 
with a wallowing place, and 
grit always handy. 

The plan of the southern 
front shows the arrangement 
of doors and window. The 
door is made of good width, 
so that wheelbarrow or cart 
can pass through when clean- 
ing the house. From 12 to 16 
sq. ft. of glass is sufficient for 
a house of this size. Too 
much glass is a mistake, as it 
makes the room overly hot in 
the daytime, and too cold at 
night, as the heat at night 
quickly passes out through a 



Front Elevation of Mr. Davis' }\.ul ry House 

glass surface. It is well to have a shutter of boards to close at night. 

It is useless to have a whole glass front in order to make summer time in the house in 
January. To do thi?, the building must be kept tight, and, with foul air, hot and humid by 
day, and damp aud cold at night, there will soon be work for the poultry undertaker. 

No scratching sheds are thought necessary for poultry houses on the farm. The interior 
wire door is closed, and the outer door thrown open, and the house is turned into a scratching 
shed. Fresh air is thereby introduced into the house, and the dust which the industrious hens 
stir up has a tendency to discourage lice and mites on the house walls and fixtures, as well as 
on the fowls themselves. 

Following is an estimate of cost of house as described 9 ft. x 12 ft. : 
Sills, 4 



x o, 

Studding, 2 x 2, 
12 rafters, 2x4, 
260 ft. siding, 

500 ft. roofing and interior sheathing, 
Windows, 
Doors, etc., 



Let the reader consider this plan in the light 
of the two points Mr. Davis states as of most 
importance — dryuess, and a smooth interior 
surface. He considers the double wall with 
air space between essential to a dry house, but 
it is probable that his houses of this type have 
been dry because well ventilated, rather than 
because of construction. We may reasonably 
infer from his last paragraph that he appre- 
ciates the value of fresh air in the poultry 
house, and takes the necessary means to have 
it there. 

The proposition of the relation of construc- 
tion to dryness in the house may be put in 
this way: — 

A double walled house properly venti- 
lated will keep dry. 



$1 50 
2 00 

1 50 
8 00 
5 00 

2 50 
1 00 



— $21 50 




End £ evutiun oj Mr. Davis'' Poultry Dome. 



80 FIB ST LESSONS IN POULTBY KEEPING. 

A double walled house not properly ventilated will not be dry, but will collect moist- 
ure on walls and ceiling just as a single walled house would under the same conditions. 

The conclusion then is unavoidable that dryness iu a house depends upon ventilation 
rather than upon the construction of the walls. 

In this connection I may appropriately refer to the occasional practice of filling or partly 
tilling the space above the level of the eaves, in a house with double pitch roof, with hay or 
straw lying on a floor with wide spaces between the boards. By this means the house is kept 
dry without being opened, but whether the requisite amount of pure air is introduced is 
doubtful. I am inclined to think that it is not, except in cases where the loft overhead is open, 
and in such cases it is open to question whether it would not be better to leave the hay out 
and ventilate through the lower windows and doors. 

In connection with the use of building paper to line the building arises the question of its 
durability, and especially of the effect upon it of repeated whitewashings, and this is a question 
upon which we have no authoritative information available. 

The only other points in connection with this plan seeming to call for comment are in regard 
to the method of making the floor, and the rated capacity of the house. 

I do not know where the advantage comes in in putting a loose board floor over the filled 
floor before covering with sand. Generally speaking, it is better to have floors so constructed 
that they furnish no harbor, under boards or cement, for rats and mice. While I cannot show 
it to be true beyond a doubt I think that it will be found by those who take notice of the matter 
that, broadly speaking, poultrymen who use houses set right on ground that can be dug up if 
necessary are much less troubled with rats and mice than those who try to build to keep them 
out of the houses. In other words, the more practical way of dealing with such pests, as well 
as with lice, seems to be to so build the houses that it is easy to get at them in their harboring 
places. 

While rated as having capacity for 25 fowls, this house, the dimensions of which are 9 x 12, 
giving a floor area of 108 sq. ft., is a little small for that number. 



A riaine Poultryman's Favorite Poultry House. 

J. C. Pattison, Kennebunk, Me. 

In describing our ideas of the best plain poultry house for twenty-five fowls, we are giving 
practically the plans of a house which we have built and used a sufficient time to prove its 
worth. The house referred to, however, has two pens, and is used during the breeding season 
for breeders. In our description, therefore, we are describing to all intents and purposes one 
pen in this house. 

Requirements. 

What are the requisites of a good plain poultry house? 

Neatness and simplicity of design, 
Economy and durability of construction , 
Convenience of equipment, 
Proper hygienic conditions, 
Would seem to cover the requirements, and we shall proceed to describe a house which 
embodies these requisites. 

Specifications. 

Single pitch roof — no sills or plates used. 

Dimensions, 15 ft. long, 10£ ft. wide, 7 ft. high front, 5 ft. rear. 
Openings, four six-light sash 10 x 14 in. glass. Door, 2£ x 5£ ft. 
Sheathing, rough boards covered with sheathing and roofing paper. 

Interior. — Roosting box 9 x 8 f t. Bank of nests 18 in. above floor. Hopper for grit and 
oyster shells. Shelf for water pan, feed box. Dirt floor. 



FIBST LESSONS /.Y POULTRY KEEPING 



81 



/ 



7 



/ 



7 



/ 



/ 



/ 



/ 



Construction. 

Roof. — In the low single roofed house we have the warmest conotructfOD Obtainable at a* 
minimum of expense iu building, and overcome any objection that there may be on the score of 
poor ventilation by curtains in front of roosts and at certain windows. 

Framing. —The studs are toe nailed directly to posts set into the ground 18 in., and project- 
ing 6 in. above ground, and the rafters are nailed directly to top of studs, which are cut at the 
right level to fit them, thus doing away with sills and plates. This construction gives ample' 
Strength for buildings of this class. The front studs are spaced to take in the three windows- 
shown in cut, Fig. 1, about - ft. 10 in. apart, which allows windows to slide vertically between.' 
stu ■ l>. This also establishes the spacing of rafters and rear studs at 2 ft. 10 in. 

Dimensions. -The ground dimensions, Id x 10£ ft., gives a pen of sufficient size for twenty- 
rive fowls, and lumber will cut to good advantage. The height, 7 ft. front, 5 ft. rear, is suffi- 
cient for doing the work, while contributing greatly to the warmth, and lessening the expense 
over higher Btudding. 

Windows. —You v six-light sa>h, three in front and one in opposite end to door, are sufficient 

for light and ventilation. These are arranged to slide 

up ami down readily, and should be open a part of 

each day. For these window spaces also we should. 

have at least two frames same size as sash covered 

with cotton cloth to slip in iu placeof glasson stormy 

days, to give ventilation and keep out snow and ruin.. 

Sliding frames are preferable to those hinged at the 

top for window openings, as the latter catch dust 

when up, which excludes light. For our part we 

use no glass at all in our laying houses, (except in a 

house for bleeders, and this only to protect combs- 

of males), but rely on curtains entirely. In summer. 

. with front and end windows out, and slat door, the 

: house will cool perfectly on hottest nights. 

; Floor.— For almost all locations, or on praetieally 

: all laud suitable for fow is, a dirt floor is far superior 

s to one of boards or other material. The building; 

1 should be filled iu several inches higher than ground 

; outside, with fine dry dirt. A dirt floor furnishes 

: the best possible absorbent for droppings, and con- 

- tributes greatly to the health of the fowls— a dusting 

: medium which the fowls may use at will — a good 

j, foundation for litter, and the labor of removing dirt 

a and replacing with fresh each spring and fall, is less- 

5 than keeping a board floor properly clean, to say 

; nothing of the high fertilizing value of the dirt 

. removed, which is fined up ready for use. 

Core ing. — The sheathing, being covered with 
paper, may be of unplaned lumber, if cheaper, and 
the bottom courses should be of hemlock, which will 
last longest when In contact with the earth. The 
sheathing runs lengthwise of the building,- a sheath- 
ing paper is used to increase the warmth, and in 
laying work should be begun from the opposite 
end of building from that used in beginning to lay 
the roofing proper in order to break joints witb the 
roofing and render the building warmer and more 
wind proof. A very good way to lay the paper is 
to run the strips from the ground or windows in 
front up over the roof and down to the ground in 



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FIB ST LESSONS .IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



back in one piece, which saves material and insures tightness. Batten of iHch pine laid two 
strips to a width of paper holds the covering be although tins will do. 

Interior.— In cut, Pig. 2, the interior arrangements are shown. The roosting box, with 
board 1 ft. high at bottom to keep litter on main floor, is 9 ft. x 3 ft., giving space for 18 ft. 
of roost, and has cloth covered frame hinged at top to let down in extreme weather and still 
permit fresh air to reach the fowls through cloth. The cut shows no droppings board, but 
merely the dirt floor at the bottom; this is by all odds the best arrangement, (we are 
usin 0- both methods, and know) doing away with the unsanitary board, an abomination as 
usually taken care of . A few shovelsful of earth occasionally thrown in the bottom of this 
box will keep everything in good sanitary condition for several weeks without cleaning out. 

Those who prefer the board, 
however, may put it in. 
Roosts are 2x3 in. scant- 
lings, 18 iu. from ground. 

The nests shown in the 
cut are up off the floor show- 
ing floor space, and giving a 
secluded dark nest, which is 
an advantage when an egg 
eater develops; they are 
more easily reached by the 
attendant than the " soap 
box in the corner," although 
the latter is not to be de- 
spised. These nests are set 
upon a shelf run between 
the end of roost box and 
end of house 2 ft. wide, and 
18 in. above floor. The 
cover, the lower half of 
which is hinged, should have 
slant enough to make it 
objectionable as a roosting 
place. 

The hoppers for grit and 
oyster shells speak for them- 
selves. For a feed box we 
prefer one made by using a 
board 10 in. wide by 2 ft. 
long with strips 6 in. wide 
nailed to its edges, the strip* 
to be n filed from their 
centers, thus making in 
effect a box 3 iu. deep 
whichever side is up. By 
simply turning it half over, 
a clean side presents itself. 
Mash may be poured from a 
pail into a box of these 
dimensions easier than into 
a V trough. In conclusion 
let us say that there is no 
condition met by a scratch- 
ing shed house, or any other 
kind of house, thatthia house 




$1 68 


75 


8 50 


2 40 


90 


1 00 


5 00 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 88 

properly used (and with plenty of scratching material) will not meet also. The windows are 
intended to be open every day in the year. If it snows, slip in the cloth covered frames 
described, but give the fowls fresh air at any and all times day and ni^ht through their cur- 
tains, and don't have a droppings board six inches from their noses. 

. -Our healthiest and best layers last winter, when the thermometer went to 20° below 
zero on several occasions, were boused without using a single square of glass, just the two sets 
of curtains. If this be true in this latitude it should be in almost any. 

Materials. 
The following is a list of materials required, with prices: 
3 pieces 2x4 22 ft. long for rafters, 44 sq. ft. makes 2 each. 
9 pieces 2 x 3 10 ft. fong for studs, 40 sq. ft. front and rear stud each. 

84 sq. ft.,.'fi)$20M., 
16 cedar posts, 2 ft. long, 
500 sq. ft. 12 ft. boards, $17 M., 
4 windows, 6 light 10 x 14 glass, 60c. each, 
Nails, binges, etc., 
1 roll sheathing paper, 500 sq. ft., 
1 roll red rope rooting paper, 500 sq. ft., 

Total, $20 2:5 

J* 

In the matter of roofing material opinions differ widely; some would prefer to use a more 
expensive material than the above. In that case a lighter weight can be used for the sides than 
for roof, which will effect a saving in the class of material referred to, which runs from $1.75 
for one-half ply to $3.25 for four ply per square of 100 ft. The red rope, however, will last 
several years, properly laid, and if painted will last longer. 

We have then a house for 25 fowls costing little more than $20 for material, which is "good 
enough" for the purpose, and fulfills all the requisites cited in the beginning of this article. 



My first criticism on this house plan would be as to dimensions of the floor. If we admit as 
correct the proposition laid down in Lesson VIII., that the floor should be as nearly square as 
possible, the house 10 ft. wide by 15 ft. long is getting a little too far away from our standard. 

Under some circumstances I would criticise the form of the roof, but in a house as narrow as 
this the objections which may sometimes be made to a single pitched roof with northern 
exposure lose much of their force; and though observation of houses I used myself has seemed 
to indicate to me that as a general rule a double pitch roof was more satisfactory, \ would not 
care to dogmatize on that point, and have my judgment on it judged by the experiences of 
Others, because points like that are difficult to determine beyond doubt. 

One thing, however, should be emphasized: Whoever adopts this plan must consider the 
effect before making changes in the dimensions. Mr. Pattison figured out dimensions that keep 
him clear of fan its which would be pronounced in a house of the same style with some other 
dimensions. If such a house is made 12 ft. wide, the front wall must be higher, or the rear 
wall lower, or both, and the rafters for a single stretch of roof become longer than is advisable 
for a roof with no supports under it. 

The enclosed roosting box I would consider unnecessary, except perhaps to protect large 
conibs, and I am not sure that it is necessary for that for fowls that are thoroughly rugged. 



Another Maine Poultry House. 

Martin Ryan, Baring, Me. 

Although in this plan there may be nothing new, for a plain substantial poultry house that is 
warm, dry, and light, there is nothing better. The plan is for a house 12 x 16 ft., but it can be 



84 



FIB ST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



built any length. The house is 4 ft. high at back, as low at side, and 6£ ft. at front side, with 
long and short pitched roof. It is plenty high enough for a man to stand inside back as far as 
the droppings board without stooping. 

The house rests on ten cedar posts that are set in the ground three feet, and extend above the 
ground eight inches. One post goes to each corner; two at equal distances apart under the 
front and back sills, and one under the center of each end sill. The posts are lined off level at 
top, and the 4 x 4 sills spiked on top of the posts. The frame is 2 x 4 spruce. The studs and 
rafters are two feet apart, and the house is boarded tight down to the ground with rough 
boards, and roof, ends, and sides covered outside the boardiug with good sheathing paper, and 
shingled with cedar shingles laid five inches to the weather. 

Inside between the sills is filled in with small stone to the depth of six or eight inches, and 
covered with gravel or sand level with top of sills ; this will bring the floor up enough so it will 
be perfectly dry, and the fowls will always have a dust bath in the sand and gravel of the floor. 

The high side of the house should face the south or southwest, and have two windows fifteen 
lights each of 8 x 10 glass. The windows are hung on hinges, and swing inside, and when 
these windows are swung open on bright sunny days the house is turned into a partial open 
scratching shed. The house can be divided with wire partition and frame door covered with 
wire hung on spring hinges. This will give two pens that are very convenient if more than one 
variety is kept, or when sorting fowls for breeding. 

The roosts are at the low side of the house. The droppings boards are put up two feet from 
the sill, and the cleats that the roosts rest upon are six inches higher than the droppings boards. 
The roosts are 2x4, the length of each pen, two roosts to a pen. They are ten inches from the 
wall and fifteen inches apart. The droppings boards are three feet wide. 

The nests are under the droppings boards, and are 14 x 14 inches wide by 12 inches deep; 
they fit up against the droppings boards, leaving a space of one foot under them so the fowls 
have the entire floor to roam and scratch in. These nests are not nailed in place, but slide in 
on cleats; they are made in one long box divided in four nests, each with a four inch board at 
back to hold the straw that the nests are made of. The front of the nest is a four and an 
eighth inch board. The wide board is hinged and drops down so the eggs can be gathered from 
the front. The back of the nest is provided with a four inch board for the hens to step upon 
when entering the nest. These nests are retired and dark enough so there is no danger of egg 
eating. 

The wall back of the roost from the droppings board up to plate, and the roof up to a line 
even with the outer edge of droppings boards is double boarded and stuffed with dry sawdust. 

My house that is built on this plan is forty feet long, and I find itjust the thing. I like it 
better every year; better than any other house that I have yet seen. There is no space taken 
up for walk or nests. The house is built for hens, and the entire floor space is given to them. 

With the short and long roo 
you get a house high enough to 
work in without danger of head 
bumps; while with the single 
pitched roof the walls would 
have to be much higher to get 
the same room at low side of 
house, and, therefore, much 
colder. The high side of this 
house faces the south, giving 
room for high windows, and 
giving larger area of building 
the benefit of the sun in the 
short winter days when it is so 
much needed. In my house the 
windows are open every day, 
except when the snow blows 
In, and I am never troubled 
with colds or roup among my d. 











J 


d 


8rt. 

/• - , 


SFt. 

h 



Ground /'/an 
door, W, window, 



ot Mr. R/yanH House. 

d, dropping boards, r r, roosts. 



PlBST LESSONS IN TOULTBY KEEPING. 



85 















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M 


fit 




bens. They are us 
healthy ami vigorous a 
lot or fowl9 as you can 
find any where. I keep 
the lloor well covered 
with litter In which 1 
scatter grain, and the 
fowls will scratch ami 
dig and sing all day 
long as happy and con- 
tented as if they were 
in my wife's flower 
beds in June. 
J* 
This house I would 
rate as having a capa- 
city of 12 hens to a 
pen, in all 24 hens. At Outside Front and Inside Back oj Mr. Ryan's Poultry /lou-r. 

a pinch it might he N, nests, e, entrance to nests, d, dropping boards, r r, roosts, 

used for a few more, hut with the droppings boards extending 3 ft. from the north 
wall, and the nests under them the floor space for use in the house is hardly more than 8x9 ft., 
or 72 sq. ft. 

Bill of Lumber. 

Sills, 2 pieces 4 x 4, 16 ft. long. 

Sills, 2 pieces 4 x 4, 12 ft. long. 

Studding, 9 pieces, 2 x 4, 6 ft. 4 in. long. 

Studding, 9 pieces, 2 x 4, 3 ft. 10 in. long. 

Plates, 2 pieces, 2 x 4, 16 ft. long. 

Rafters, 9 pieces, 2 x 4, 9 ft. 6 in. long. 

Rafters, 9 pieces, 2 x 4, 4 ft. 6 in. long. 

Collar beams, 9 pieces, 1 x 4, 6 ft. long. 

End and partition studs, 4 pieces, 2 x 4, 8 ft. long. 

In all— 320 ft. of spruce for frame, <cb $14 

Ten cedar posts 3 ft. 8 in. long, 4 !n. at top. 

550 sq. ft. of hemlock boards, (a) $10 per M., 

150 sq. ft. of matched boards, (a) $16 per M., 

30 sq. ft. of furring 4 in. wide, <a) $14 per M., 

40 sq. ft. of furring 5 in. wide, (8> $14 per M., 
5 M. shingles, <a> $1.50 per M., 

30 lbs. of nails, (a) 4c. per lb., 
3 rolls of sheathing paper, (S> 50c. per roll, 

10 cedar posts, <cb 5c. each, 
Hinges and latch, 

$24 06 

These are the prices that rule in this vicinity. 

While not disposed to quarrel with those who use and prefer them, the arrangement of nests 

under droppings boards never suited me, even 
when I used droppings boards in the poultry 
houses. The nest arrangement I like best for 
laying hens is an open nest to hang on the 
wall. This will be described in connection 
with other nests in a subsequent lesson. 
As the reader may infer from a comparison 
**• of this with my own plans, the packed wall 
and roof back of and above the fowls is a 
feature I consider unnecessary. During this 
last winter I have had one pen of hens that 
had a shed full of leaves back of it, but I 
could not see that they were better off than the 
hens that had but one thickness of boards. 



$4 48 



5 50 


2 40 


42 


56 


7 50 


1 20 


1 50 


50 


50 




Croti Section 



Poultry House. 



86 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

A House With Single Pitched Roof Sloping South. 

E. A. O'Brien, South Dennis, Mass. 

This is a 10 x 15 ft. house; 7 ft. back; 4 ft. front, facing south. The claim for this house 
}s a combination hiying house and scratching shed. Its capacity is twenty hens. 

There are two windows 3j| x 4 ft. in front, which are hinged at top, and opening inward, 
he.d up by a hook from roof, wire netting on outside of casing, so that in all stormy days 
these w.idows can be opened, and the fowls have plenty of good fresh air with no drafts. 
Tfcese windows are placed at the west end of the front of the house, one foot apart, 
leaving a space of six feet at the east end for laying and roosting room not partitioned off. 

Tte droppings board is 8 x 6 ft., and on hinges which can be made at any blacksmith's 
shop — ? four inch eye threaded — which is screwed into the corner upright, and into another 
upright six feet away; the hinge is made with an "L" to fit the eye, rounded. The 
roosts are made, of three inch furring — two pieces 6 ft. long, 14 in. apart, and two pieces 
2£ ft. long— and put on hinges the same as the droppings board, and attached to the same 
uprights, only 8 in. above droppings board, which is one foot above the lower stringer. 



£L 





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T 




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Ground Plan of Mr. O'Brien's Poultry House. 
D, door; o, small door; w, window; d, droppings board; r r, roosts; T, trough for droppings; w, water vessel, 

A flat trough, 10 in. wide and 6 ft. long, with 4 in. ends and sides, is placed between the 
two uprights close to the wall; this trough catches all the droppings as the dropping3 board 
ig raised up to the back wall and hooked up out of the way. With the hinges made as 
above mentioned, the roosts and droppings board can be unhinged without any trouble, and 
taken out and cleaned. 

When going through the house mornings to feed, it is a matter of but a minute to raise 
roosts and droppings board, droppings falling into trough below; then when feeding at night 
lef them down again and sprinkle a little slaked lime or ashes — just dust — which absorbs the 
moisture from droppings, and they roll off when the board is raised; trough may be 
c.eaned once a week. Push wheelbarrow into house, and as the trough is wide enough to 
admit a shovel, it takes but few minutes to clean it out, again using a sprinkling of lime or 
ashes. 

The arrangement of roosts and droppings boards gives the whole house for a scratching 
shed. Put in a foot of litter; throw grain in litter, and hens will do the rest. 

On extremely cold nights a curtain of burlap can be made very cheaply and dropped from 
roof to about six feet above the droppings board ; the burlap is better than cotton or duck, a» 
it is so loosely woven that it does not make a hot house of the roosts, but allows a free circU" 
lation of air, and yet gives the needed warmth. 



FIMST LESSONS IX POULTRY KEEPING. 



87 



The material used In building this house is as follows: — 
6 sticks, 2 x 4 — 15 f(, long tor stringers, 
16 sticks, 2x4 — 12 it. long for roof, front and back uprights. 
450 feet hemlock boards. 

1 roll Xeponset red roof paper. 

2 sash, 34 x 4 ft. 

;> pair strap hinges for door and windows. 
2 pair hinges and eyes for : oosts and droppings board. 
5 hooks for door, windows, roosts, droppings board. 
1 bundle laths for cleats for roof. 
The price for material differs so much in different localities that I will not give prices, but 
this house, with lumber at $18 per 1,000 ft., should and can be built for less than $25. 

J* 

As in the case of Mr. Pattison's house, we 
have here a plan in which the dimensions 
minimize what 1 call faults in the style of the 
house. In a house with the front only 4 ft. 
high, the sun does not get into the house as it 
does with higher windows, while the whole 
roof and front being exposed to the south, such 
a house, unless very carefully ventilated, warms 
up too much during the middle of the day, and 
cools too quickly after the sun goes down. 

Though I would not recommend this style of 
roof for a house built where any style of roof 
might be used, there are times when it is the best 
style — as when a poultry house is to be built as a 
lean-to beside another building. 

In a house of this style and dimensions, I 
think it would be found au advantage to put 
windows in the ends as well as in the front. 
The light would be better, and the ventilation 
through the windows could be better worked 
to offset the faults of this style of roof. 

The roosting arrangement is one that will 
appeal to many. 

J* 

A Neat House With Labor Cost 
Given. 

A. T. Grosvenor, Abington, Conn. 

Last year I wintered three pens of hens in 
houses constructed similar to the accompanying 
plan. This plan, however, in order to accommo- 
date twenty-five hens, is two feet longer and 
one foot wider than the plan of the house now in 
line. The pitch of the roof on each house is the 
same, consequently the larger building is some- 
what higher. 

In regard to the construction, the sills are 3x4 
in. pieces, while the posts, plates, rafters, etc., 
are all 2x3 in. The frame is covered with 
ploughed and matched pine, or barn boards 
only. The roof is shingled, with no attempt to 
uave tne roof boards lit closely; in fact, on the 




88 



FIB ST LESSONS IN POULTRY 



KEEPING. 

The eight inch jet is of 



four houses which I have, the roof boards are nearly two inches apart. 
course unnecessary, but I think it adds considerable to the appearance. 

For light there are two windows with double sashes, each sash having two 12 x 16 inch panes 
One or both of tbase windows is opened a part of each day, the time determined by the tem 
perature and condition of the weather. The floor of each pen is sand and gravel. 



Sills. 



Materials and Labor. 

Frame. 

2 pieces 3 x 4 in. 12 ft. long, 24 sq. ft. 
1 piece 3 x 4 in. 16 ft. long, 16 sq. ft. 

3 pieces 2 x 3 in. 16 ft. long, 24 sq. ft. 
16 pieces 2 x 3 in. 12 ft. long, 96 sq. ft. 



$22.50 per M., 

Boards, etc. 



160 sq. ft. 



154 sq. ft. roof boards, 14 ft. long, (a) $20 per M., 
192 sq. ft. barn boards, 16 ft. long, @ $30 per M., 
168 sq. ft. barn boards, 12 ft. long, 

9 pieces square edge pine, 4 in. wide, 12 ft. long, (cb $30 per M.. 

3 pieces square edge pine, 4 in. wide, 14 ft. long, 
1250 shingles, (cb $4 per M., 

2 windows, 

Nails, hinges, thumb latch, etc., 

Labor, 



Total, 



$3 60 

3 OS 
5 76 
5 04 

1 08 
42 

5 00 

2 20 
1 00 
7 50 

$34 08 



In this plan we get away, a little, from the severely plain and simple construction of the 
■other plans given, and get a build- 
iug somewhat more sightly, a 
point which sometimes has to 
*»e considered if a poultry house 
is so placed with reference toother 
buildings that an extremely plain 
•one would mar the general effect. 

The one point which seems to 
ane especially to call for criticism 
Is the leaving a space between 
tlie sheathing on the roof. Most 
of my houses are built that way, 
but I would not build another 
without laying the roof sheathing 
«;lose. The increase of cost is 
comparatively trifling, and the 
gain in looks, and a smooth sur- 
face to whitewash is considerable. 

As with some of the ether 
plans ■given, the capacity of this 
bouse is rated rather high. 
Twenty-five hens may be kept 
in it in winter, but twenty is 
nearer right, and the latter 
jiuuiuer is the safer one to use. 




JJiuy turns Showing Ground Plan and 
Scale, }-lnrh 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 
Which Plan? 



89 



SAelf 
for 

jourtl&t > 



'jT-o-rvfZoar 



Interior 



5 



In the above plans, and the two given in the last lesson, readers have been furnished 
plans for seven plain, good, and cheap poultry houses at low to moderate cost. 

While I have made some criticisms on the plans in this lesson, and also fndieated some faults 
in construction of the houses I built, I want to impress it on those studying these lessons, and 
about to decide what style of house to build, that— considered from the standpoint of practical 
work — the faults of these plans are what we may term secondary faults. There is nothing in 
any of them, that I can discover, that would make it possible for one using such a house to 
attribute poor results to the hou«e. 

The matter of the adaptability of these different plane to different conditions, and especially 

to other climates, will seem to many to call for consideration. Many suppose — and not 

unnaturally — that a bouse suited to New England conditions would not suit conditions in 

Virginia, Maryland, Florida, or Tej is. 

The more substantially and warmly built houses used in northern states go beyond what 

southern conditions re- 
quire in construction. 
That they also go beyond 
what northern conditions 
require, a great many of 
us believe, and are proving 
our faith by the style of 
buildings we use. But a 
warm, tight house with 
8 m a I I openings which 
might work satisfactorily 
in the north — except In 
occasional sultry weather, 
would be unsatisfactory 
In a warm climate. For 
such a climate an open 
shed house, such as those 
I am using, is much bet- 
ter. However, from my 
own experience with 
houses of different styles 
in Colorado, where I have 
seen colder weather than 
in the vicinity of Boston, 
much warmer weather 
than we ever have here, 
and more sudden changes 
than I have seen here, I 
feel safe in recommending 
such houses as I now use 
for any place where shel- 
ter is required. As slight 
In construction as they can 
be made and? have them 
stand up and stay together. 
they still provide protec- 
tion from storms of all 
kinds. The experience of 
many poultrymen In differ- 
ent sections is confirming 
this judgment. 



/£ 



_o a 



2i 



Framing of 
to tiii tool. 



Air. Gi osvenor's liuu.se. 



90 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



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FIBS T LESSONS L\ POULTRY KEEPING, 91 



LESSON XI 



Summer Management of Fowls, 



TBIS subject naturally divides into two topics: 
l.— What fowls to keep. 
2.— How to handle them to best advantage. 
Both of these topics have to be considered with reference to future as well as 
immediate results. 

Old Hens as Layers. 

In connection with the question of keeping over for another year the hens now from a year 
to fifteen or sixteen months old, arises the old question of the relative value of pullets and 
hen9 as egg producers, a question which has provoked as much controversy and as much 
needless and pointless wrangling as any of the many questions each swiftly passing generation 
of beginners in poultry culture has to solve anew for itself. 

The first cause of all this trouble is in the statement of the proposition — in the attempt to 
make an arbitrary division of fowls into profitable and unprofitable producers, anil make the 
line of separation at a certain age. 

I think it may be truly said that in no matter relating to poultry (or to anything else, but 
we have to do only with poultry here), is it possible to make arbitrary and sharp divisions and 
distinctions for certain alleged purposes, and have results as they come justify the rules upon 
which the divisions were made. There is no best breed of fowls. There is no best method 
of feeding or housing. We are many men of many minds, working under many different 
circumstances, with stocks of fowls that have experienced many different conditions. So we 
cannot all use the same rules, nor will any of us be wise to make hard and fast rules to 
govern in the conduct of our business. 

To <;et back to the main point. In the discussiou of question of the relative laying qualities 
of hens and pullets, the fowls are generally classed according to age at the beginning of the 
period for which results are to be compared, and considered as in that class throughout the 
entire period, though, as a matter of fact, the pullets may pass the pullet age at some time 
within it. Properly designated, a pullet is a ben less than a year old. 

The period for which results are usually compared is from the time the first pullets begin 
to lay —generally October or November — until the next spring or early summer. Hence, in 
such comparisons, no account, as a rule, is taken of the performance of the hen during 
Rummer and early fall, though it must be evident to every one that in considering the question 
at this season, (July 1st), we must consider what we may get out of the hens in the four 
months or so before the pullets are laying, as well as what we may get in the winter and 
spring. 

Some authorities advise and some poultrymen make a practice of disposing of laying stock 



92 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

in the fall when the hens that were pullets in the preceding winter are sixteen to eighteen 
mouths old. I think it is much the better way to give the old stock a general overhauling 
before extreme warm weather comes on, and arrange at that time for the most profitable dis- 
position of each of the several lots into which the flock will be divided. When the general 
<;lean up is to be made iu the fall the tendency is to leave in the flock many hens which should 
be disposed of without delay, the reason the poultryman gives himself for this being that, as 
the bulk of the lot is to be disposed of at that future time, it makes little difference if the few 
unprofitables are allowed to remain in it. Consequently some proportion of the fowls in each 
pen or flock are non-producers, adding nothing to the income, while consuming their share of 
the food, occupying room, taking time and attention of the poultryman, and, last but not least, 
adding to his risks of loss, for the idle unproductive fowl at this season more, perhaps, than 
at any other, is detrimental to the flock. 

So it seems to me that the numerous beginners, and others young i» the business, who are 
on their own initiative making preparations to cull their hens, now show a much better appre- 
ciation of the best policy than do those of longer experience who leave this culling until the 
summer is over. 

As I come in contact, personally and through correspondence, with the experiences of a 
great many poultry keepers each year, it seems to me that it is still true as it was in the 
traditional times prior to the improvement of breeds and of methods of poultry culture, that 
most hens lay well for only a few months in the spring. It seems, also, to be the fact that a 
great many poultrymen who get fair to good egg yields in winter and spring get very poor 
yields after the warm weather comes on. In this fact we may find one reason for their prefer- 
ence for puUets for laying purposes, and for their failure to reckon summer and fall as profit- 
able seasons in egg production. 

Certainly it does not pay to keep hens over if they are idle for a period of five, six, or seven 
months; but, if we can have our hens giving fair to good egg yields through summer and fall, 
and have them idle, or nearly so, for but two or three months, that is the better way to manage. 
The question is: Can it be done, and how? 

Selecting Hens to Keep Over. 

Let me state first of all that it cannot be done with all hens. In every flock of yearling hens 
there are some it will not pay to carry over — hens that even at this age have outlived their 
usefulness. The proportion of such hens will depend on the vitality of the stock, on its 
general condition and performance through the winter, and on how well the poultry keeper 
has succeeded in adjusting food and care to maintaining the hens in condition for future 
productiveness. 

If as the poultry keeper reviews bis experiences of the past year he recalls any of the follow. 
ing things as circumstances in the history of his flock of yearling hens, he is warranted in con- 
sidering that an unusually large proportion of them are not good candidates to keep over:— 

1. If they were not thrifty as young chicks. 

2. If at any period of growth they were checked. 

3. If there was at any time during the year any serious sick7iess epidemic among 

them. 

4. If they were spasmodic layers. 

f>. If after a period of good laying they suddenly fell off and were hard to get laying 

again. 
ti. If they are now generally in poor condition. 
A lot of hens may have had all these unfortunate experiences; few flocks entirely escape 
them, and most poultrymen have to take account of some of them every year. The years when 
we avoid them all are red letter 3 ears in our lives, and the hens produced in those years are 
likely to be unusually long lived as profitable layers. 

Now, though in proportion as they have escaped the above ills, the yearling hens are more 
promising candidates for a longer stay in the poultry yard, we must not make the mistake of 
condemning them on one or two counts, especially if the faults were remedied ; but we must 
note that every unfavorable condition in the life of the hen increases the danger that as she 
,passes her prime she will develop digestive or ovarian troubles, and with this in mind we must 



F1MJST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 93 

select much more carefully from such a lot of hens than from a flock that has had no trouble 
and h;is been steadily productive, aiul always In dealing with an Individual of such history must 
consider that its expectation of continued productiveness or of recovery from disease is below 
the average. In deciding upon his general arrangements for the year, the poultry keeper who 
has to deal with a flock like this can estimate that he will have only a small proportion of year- 
ling liens to carry over. 

Id selecting from a flock of yearlings that have been generally in good condition, free from 
disease, and fair to good egg producers, take tirst those that are plainly in good health and con- 
dition, bright looking and presumed to be laying or about to lay. Hens that answer that 
description at this season of the year we may say quite positively that it will pay to keep over. 

Of course this does not mean that every such hen will be profitable. Every hen of a small 
lot may be. but the rule is that as hens advance in age an increasing proportion of them develop 
disorders or from various reasons become unprofitable. What we say of 1 his selected lot of 
yearling hens is that being at this season in tine condition these hens may be reserved and given 
regular care with every reasonable assurance that they will give a good account of themselves, 
and their further culling need not concern the poultryman for some time. 

Having taken out the best hens, take now the worst ones — the hens that are noticeably 
inferior in size and appearance. Perhaps 1 can make it plainer by telling how I go about it 
myself. 

When putting pullets into winter quarters in the fall, as long as I have room for them, I do 
nOt reject slightly undersized or those that lack typical shape, provided they seem vigorous aud 
healthy. My experience has been that while not equal to well grown and well built pullets for 
continued egg production these inferior pullets are generally profitable as layers through their 
tirst winter and spring laying period. After that I find them as a rule less satisfactory, and 
except in case I reserve some for further tests, all such yearling hens go to the hen cart in the 
first general clean up iu June or early July. When I was handling poultry on a larger 6cale, 
and peddling out my products, we were killing off old stock as customers wanted it every week 
in the year, yet always as the young chicks came up and needed the room we found It necessary 
to go over the whole stock carefully aud dispose of many of the least promising yearlings. 

These poorest hens are destined to go to the hen cart as soon as in marketable coudition, 
whether they begin to lay or not. 

We have left now some hens about which we are uncertain. They do not seem to belong 
positively with either of the other classes. Most of them are good hens in poor condition. 

That being the case, the points for us to consider are why they are in poor condition, and 
whether their condition can be readily improved. 

The most common cause for healthy hens being In poor condition at this season is that egg 
production for some time has been so heavy that they could not keep it up and keep in good 
flesh at the same time. The result is that they lay heavily as long as they can stand it, then 
have to stop, and will either not lay or lay only occasionally until restored to good condition. 

My hens are at all times full fed and with sufficient variety, yet I always find a considerable 
number of them that thus lay themselves out of condition. The lot of hens comprising this 
class, if put by themselves, as I put them now, generally give, for awhile, a very small egg 
yield, though if one has been very rigid in selection of his tirst class hens, he will have left 
for this some that are laying, but not in good condition, and only more attractive than the 
others which go into the intermediate class because the comb is bright. If these laying Ijpiih 
•zo as they should into this intermediate lot we are likely to have from it at the start a low, bill 
steady egg yield. 

The hens are now divided Into three lots, 1. e. : 

Lot I.—Qood lions in good condition. 

L<>t 2.— (ioo<l hens in j>oor condition. an>l he ns ahovt. which the keeper /els 
uncertain. 

Lot .3. — Poor hens and thOBe vhirh for Other reasons it is not desirable to 
keep. 

Under thi> last specification include scaly legged bens — no matter how good in 
other respects. 



94 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

Lot 1 is to be kept over, aud is to have the regular summer care to be described. 

Lot 2 is to have special care and feeding. to bring as many as may be into good condition, then 
be sorted out again, those which respoud quickly to good care being transferred to Lot 1, or 
given the same care where they are, while those that do not get into condition with reasonable 
promptitude are to be marketed. 

With regard to these last, and also to hens in Lot 3, if they do not flesh up readily, though 
apparently healthy, sell them as they are for what they will bring. Don't try to fatten them 
regardless of time or cost. The probability is that such hens have weak digestion, or some 
minor disorder that prevents getting them in good flesh, and if the attempt is made to force 
them pronounced disease may develop and make them a total loss. There is a market for poor 
f ow Is, but not for sick ones. 

We will refer again to points in the handling of these lots of fowls after the geueral state- 
ment of the method of caring for fowls in summer. 

The Season and the Systems. 

Allusion has been made to the fact that many poultrymen who get fair to good egg yields 
in winter and spring do not do bo well in summer. There may be other special reasons for 
this in special cases, but I think the prime reason is to be found in that the hens are kept under 
conditions that were made for winter, and cannot be properly adapted to summer poultry 
keeping. 

Ventilation in the Poultry House. 

Many poultry houses are so constructed that they cannot be thoroughly ventilated. Many 
that might be well ventilated by leaving all doors and windows open day and night are but 
partly opened in the day time, and almost closed at night. Houses with the roosts next low 
rear walls, and houses with deep narrow pens give very unsatisfactory conditions on hot 
sultry nights. In cool summers hens may do fairly well in such houses, but in hot seasons the 
lack of air in such quarters is very debilitating. A summer poultry house should be airy day 
and night; it must be so if the fowls are to do well and keep well in it. The Rhode Island 
colony poultry farmers block their houses up several inches from the ground in summer, 
admitting fresh air all around. If thorough ventilation cannot be obtained any other way, 
maite openings in the rear wall of the house near the roof, with a slide or hinged cover that 
can oe closed when rain or wind would beat in. There is, however, little danger of bad effects 
from such causes if the opening is protected by the eaves of the house; and there are few times 
in summer when one need fear lest fowls suffer from drafts through such openings. 

Yards and Range. 

Fowls keep in best condition iu summer if they have good grassy range, with both sun and 
shade as they may want to take them. 

They can, as a rule, be made more productive if confined to yards where the supply of 
green food does not exceed their actual needs, and fed well on a ration differing but little from 
that given during cool weather. 

The most productive fowl, however, is not always the most profitable fowl. The item of 
labor must be considered, and the more yard room fowls are given the less close attention to 
their wants is necessary. No rule to govern the adjustment of labor to production can be given. 
It must vary under different circumstances. 

1 1 a man has nothing to do but take care of his fowls, or has ample time to give them all the 
care required under intensive methods, his best policy is to get the largest possible product 
from his hens. 

If in the use of intensive methods, he gives time to poultry that otherwise would be 
devoted toother profitable work, he must decide just what division of his time will pay him 
best. Such decision requires some experience and some experiment in adjusting methods to 
circumstances. The essential thing in the early stages of one's work with poultry is to under- 
stand the need and advantage of striking the right balance in the distribution of time to 
different kinds of work, and direct one's ell'ort toward the gradual solution of the problem. 



FIS8T LESSONS IN POULTS Y KEEPING. 95 

Consideration must also he given to the fact that, though hy confinement and high feeding, 
hens may, as a rule, be made more productive than when given more liherty and lighter diet, 
the process wears them out faster, and it is not advisable to force in this way hens that are to 
be used the next season for breeding purposes, or indeed hens that are wanted to lay during 
the succeeding winter and spring. High feeding through summer should he carried to the 
limit only with hens that are destined to be sold as soon as they cease to lay profitably. With 
those we want to produce longer we must be more moderate, and must modify the diet, even 
it cost of reduction in the egg yield, during extreme hot weather. 

The Effects of Change. 

Another point to he considered is that a change of quarters or a change from one system to a 
epiite different one, with perhaps, changes in diet or method of feeding with the changing con- 
ditions, will at the same time better the condition and the egg yield of fowls. 

Again and again poultry men have taken breeding hens after months of heavy laying In con- 
finement, put them on range to recuperate, not caring whether the hens laid or not, and found 
that after a littie rest they began to lay, and laid well for a long time, wheu if left in their old 
quarters they would probably have done nothiug. Good laying under such conditions does not 
seem to take as much out of the fowls as the same production in confinement. Such a change 
is not a sure way of making hens lay in summer, but it seems to do so often enough to make it 
worth a trial when other methods fail. 

Summer Feeding. 

Except for extremely hot periods or conditions which give hot effects continuously — as small 
yards and badly ventilated houses— the general summer and winter rations for laying stock may 
be virtually the same. 

Using such rations as are given in Lesson I. for moderate winter weather, increase the corn 
meal and corn in them for extreme cold winter weather, and for summer reduce the corn meal 
and (especially) the cora in warmest weather. 

In the last two or three seasons I have had more trouble with cracked corn than in all my 
previous experience, finding it difficult to get cracked corn free from mold. Consequently 1 
have fed less cracked corn than formerly, and sometimes have omitted it altogether for weeks 
at a time. Good clean cracked corn free from mold and not heated may be fed to hens on 
range or in large grass yards quite as freely now as in winter, except in hottest weather, when 
it is advisable to leave it out. 

Green Food. 

Ordinarily fowls may be allowed all the green food they will eat, both winter and summer. 
Sometimes, however, when the weather is extremely hot they will, if liberally supplied with 
green food, till up on it and take too little grain to sustain egg production at their usual mark. 
If egg production is to be maintained, if possible it is best at such times to feed green food only 
after the fowls have been fed on grain. 

Again, fowls on a range well supplied with grass and insects are apt to get in the habit of 
foraging early, maintaining themselves on insects and grass, and lay very little. The best way 
to do in Bueu cases is to keep the hens up until they have had one good feed of grain. If prac- 
ticable the end sought may be gained by increasing the number of fowls on the range, t!m> 
making the supply of food each secures by foraging enough less than a comfortable sufficiency 
to keep it ready to take a fair ration of grain once or twice a day. 

Animal Food. 
A range must be very good indeed to furnish all the animal food they need to what fowl> 
can get all the green food they need on it. Hence under ordinary conditions it is more neces- 
sary to supplement the animal food of hens on range than to provide special supplies of green 
food, and I think hens on range in summer will stand even heavier feeding of concentrated, 
prepared meat foods than when confined in winter. For hens that are closely confined it is 
*:ifer to reduce the proportions of prepared animal food, and if it is desired to feed meat heavily 
feed at least a part of fresh meat or green cut bone, which contain huge percentages of water. 
In feeding concentrated animal foods at this season special attention should be given to the 



96 FIB ST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

quality of the articles used. Anything of this kind that is not sound, sweet and good will pro* 
duce bad effects more quickly in hot weather than at any other time. 

flanner and Times of Feeding. 

Whatever may be said of dry feeding for winter, and close confinement, it must be 
admitted that for hens on range in summer it is a method economical of time, and saving 
the poultryman from the necessity of giving close attention to every feeding, for when grain 
tor a day, or two if need be, can be broadcasted over a range where it scatters enough to give 
the fowls all needed exercise in getting it, the task of feeding becomes light. 

In more restricted quarters the amount which may be thrown out at one time is smaller, and 
when we get down to small yards, times and ways of feeding differ from the winter practice 
only in that the days being long it is much easier to make a satisfactory adjustment of the 
regular meals. 

One of the great difficulties in winter feeding is to give the fowls in those shortest days 
enough for their own maintenance and good egg production, and yet not overwork the digestive 
organs. In summer, with it possible to feed in the morning several hours earlier, and in the 
eveuing several hours later, there is time for three full meals, and rests for the digestive 
system between them. That is why fowls often eat more in summer than in winter, and why 
when they do they stand heavy work better. 

Perhaps the poultry keeper does not want to get up early enough in the morning to give his 
fowls an early breakfast. If so, he should see that they have something left over from the 
night feed to give them an inducement to be busy until he is ready to give them their break- 
fast. In very hot weather— indeed at all times in summer, but especially in very hot weather, 
the fowls should get out as soon as it is light, so that they may have opportunity to feed and 
exercise while it is cool and comfortable. When the heat is great they will keep still and go 
without' food rather than make any effort to get it, and when they do this we see the same 
result as when they eat too liberally of green food to the neglect of the more substantial grain 
diet needed to sustain egg production. As my poultry houses are never closed, the hens get 
out as soon as it is light. Where houses must be closed for safety the poultry keeper should 
be about early and let the hens out. If he isn't willing to do that I should not expect to find 
him enthusiastic over summer eggs. 

The comment just made suggests a word in regard to attention to fowls in summer. There 
is little doubt in my mind that many instances of poor summer laying are due to lack of atten- 
tion to the needs of the hens. Too often the poultryman's interests at this season are centered 
on the coming generation of chicks to the neglect of the old fowls. When this is the case there 
is generally mismanagement somewhere. It may be that there is not room to carry both. In 
that case the stock should be reduced to what he has facilities to handle to good advantage. 
There is never a gain, and nearly always there is a loss, in overstocking a poultry plant. 

Special Feeding. 

Let us take up now the special feeding of such hens as we have designated as Lot 2 and 
Lot3. 

Lot 2 contains hens which are probably to be kept over, and therefore should be given care 
and feeding that would build up the general condition of the hens, as well as cause them to 
put on flesh. So while being in all other respects treated like the hens in Lot 1, they should be 
fed heavily as long as the appetite seems good. Give them a good rich mash, and enough of U 
-o that they will leave a little over, which, within an hour or so, they will come back and 
clean up. Have grain where they can get it by foraging, or scratching at any time through 
the <lay. Then, just before dark, give grain in troughs, or what mash they will eat up quickly. 
If a second mash is used at night, do not continue it too long, or it may produce indigestion. 
If fowls show any tendency to looseness of the bowels, give more grain and less mash, or use a 
dry mash. 

From ten days to three weeks of such feeding should show quite clearly what most of the 
hens are going to do. Some will begin to lay as soon as in good condition. Others will grow 
fat very fast. Some may neither fatten nor lay. 



FIRST LESSON'S IX POULTRY KEEPING. :>T 

Put those tbat lay on the general ration, Btlll feediug well, but with more caution. J 

Sell those thai fatten instead of beginning to lay. Sometimes poultry keepers try to makt 
Mich bens lay by thinning them down again, the assumption being that they do not lay because 
they are too fat Usually it is the other way : They fatten because the reproductive organs are 
tor some reasou or other dormant. 

The bens that do not fatten or lay should be marketed if, on close inspection, no reason Is 
discovered for supposing them not tit for food. If one feels in any doubt about that, and bag 
NUeta scruples as he ought to have about selling diseased poultry, he can dress and draw the 
tow Is, and market only those in which he finds the organs normal. Sometimes tbere is digest- 
ive weakness without disease. It might be overcome, aud the fowl put in good condition in 
time, but it is not profitable to keep and feed such fowls, for quite generally they consume as 
much food as the others, but the food passes through the system, aud is voided without much 
having been assimilated. 

To Fatten Fowls in Summer. 

The fowls in Lot 3 are to be sold as soon as marketable. Some of them may need no fatten- 
ing and may, if convenient, be disposed of at once. 

To fatten the others, shut them up in a comfortable pen, feed once a day a mash composed 
of equal parts com meal aud bran, with about 10% of the combined bulk of the meal and brum 
red dog, or white middlings, or low grade flour, with as much good beef scrap or meat nieaJ 
added as they will eat freely. Keep cracked corn before them all the time. Give a little green 
food daily, just enough for a relish. See that they are well supplied with water. Keep them 
quiet. If any bens are disposed to be quarrelsome, remove them aud fatten by themselves in 
small coops. 

Sell the heus as soon as in good plump condition. Don't try to get them excessively fat. Our 
market does not want that kind of poultry. There may, as in Lot 2, be a few hens thaj: will 
not fatten ; dispose of them the same way. 

This method of fattening is one that anyone can use anywhere — in almost any season. I 
Bay " almost any season," because in an extremely hot season it is sometimes found hard or 
impossible to fatten fowls this way during the warmest period. I am not prepared to say 
whether crate fattening would accomplish the desired results with those hens at such times, 
but am inclined to think it would not. 

As a rule it does not pay to give much time at this season to the hens that are not to be kept 
over. If they cannot be put in good marketable condition quickly sell them just as they are. 

flolting. 

Of late years a good deal of intere>t has been manifested in the matter of regulating the molt- 
ing of fowls. 

It has been claimed that a period of fasting or short feeding followed by a period of very 
heavy feeding of rich foods would cause the fowls to quit laying, drop the old feathers quiekh , 
grow the new coat quickly, and promptly resume laying. This theory was, I believe, first 
exploited by an institute lecturer, who was also responsible for several other somewhat sensa- 
tional stories. I could not learn from him that the hens he claimed to have made molt did 
resume laying promptly. In fact be appeared not able to produce any proof of real result*. 
though he maintained that he had succeeded in controlling the molt. Various experiments 
made along this line have had varying results, not all fowls being affected alike by the treat- 
ment. It seems to be established that in some cases a molt is enforced, but not tbat there is- 
any practical advantage in doing this. Investigations, however, have not been general enough 
to warrant any positive general conclusions, and as far as I know none have followed the hens- 
through the year following the enforced molt. As the case stands I could not advise anyone to 
attempt to control the molt in this way except with fowls he was willing to experiment upou. 

The Time of the Normal Molt Tories. —Hens begin to drop some feathers in June, may 
drop many in July, ami from that time on till winter in any large stock fowls may be found ir» 
different stages of molting. If there are any general rules that could be laid dowu in regard to 
molting 1 have never discovered them.* The greater number of hens will be "in full molt/* 



98 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

that is, quite bare of feathers, and not laying, in September and October, though often hens 
that keep on laying in the fall do not get right down to growing the new plumage until 
November. 

Rations for Molting Hens. 

The food requirements of the molting hen do not differ materially from those of the laying 
hen. Some authorities prescribe rations rich in protein and low in lats, as containing in better 
proportion the elements required for feather production. 

I began by using such rations, but soon discovered that my hens molted better, growing a 
much better and glossier coat of feathers if fed a ration rich in fats. Experience in this respect 
has been the same with hens molting in midsummer, and those molting in late fall, except that 
the hens molting in summer molted much more quickly and often laid continuously right 
through the molt. For many years my method of feeding molting hens has been : — 
Morning.— Mash as in Mash No. 1, Lesson L, but nearly half corn meal. 
Noon.— (or all day feed)— Wheat or barley broadcasted in the yards. 
Evening.— Cracked corn scattered in the yards, followed just before the hens go to roost 

by as much more cracked corn, fed either in troughs or handfuls on the ground. 
Cabbage before the fowls all the time. 
Generally hens do not all molt alike. Some molt quickly, others slowly. It is a good plan, 
whenever practicable, to keep them sorted over, and have all hens in one pen or lot very nearly 
in the same condition. 



^p 



FlMtiT LtiSSUXti AV roULTUY KEEF1NU. 99 



LE5S0N XII. 

Continuous Poultry Houses. — Continuous vs. Separate 

Houses. 



SINCE the subject of this lesson was announced, so many readers about to build have 
written rue asking my opinion as to the relative merits of continuous and separate poul- 
try houses, that I have thought it better to make the discussion of that subject preface 
the descriptions of continuous houses, and so give those interested in them the oppor- 
tunity 10 consider the plans and the advisability of building such plans in the light of what may 
be Miid for or against the system of keeping poultry in large, long houses. 

It is undoubtedly more convenient for the poultry keeper to have his fowls all under one 
roof or in connecting buildings in winter. It is easier and in every way more agreeable to be 
able to pass from the grain and feed room to any and all of the buildings occupied by fowls 
without going from under cover, and without taking more steps than absolutely necessary. 

In winter, again, for loug periods, and sometimes through quite the entire winter, it may be 
impossible for the fowls to get out beyond such little strip of ground next their house as may 
be kept clear of snow for them, and hence all the advantages of large yards and free range are 
for the time inoperative. 

A.6 far as winter poultry keeping goes, in all latitudes and localities where there is much 
snow or mud, there is no advantage in detached, separate houses, in either of the matters 
alluded to above,!, e., economy of labor and benefit of ample outdoor room to the fowls. 

There is, I think, but one point in which a continuous house is objectionable in winter. 
If built as many such houses are built, without due precautions to avoid drafts and to 
secure uniform conditions throughout the building we are very apt to have conditions of 
temperature, dryness, etc., varying greatly within the house and in parts of it becoming 
so unsuitable that the fowls iii those pens do not do as well as the others do. This differ- 
ence in condition! in pens in the same house is not the only cause of uneven results, but it 
is the cause very often when not at all suspected. To test for it. If there are in a long build- 
ing with numerous pens certain pens of fowls laying well, and others not laying well, or 
some perfectly healthy while others either seem unthrifty or one by one contract some disease, 
(particularly colds) though there is no reason in the stock itself or in the care given that will 
explain the differences, try exchanging the fowls in two such pens. If, as will often be 
the case, the pens, soon after changing places, begin to change in condition and produc- 
tiveness you may be quite sure that the bad condition and unproductiveness are due to 
some fault in the building. If a building is so constructed that no difficulties of this kind 
arise in operating it, the continuous house system is, I think, without question the best sys- 
tem for winter poultry keeping. 



100 



FIBST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



fi 



N 



N 



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Al 



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--„--- 







Section of Continuous House With 

Connecting Pens. 
A ground plan, A 1 front, A 2 partition 
between pens. 



Equally without question, T think 
that for other seasons of the year tt 
is the worst system. If a large uum» 
ber of fowls are to be kept on a small 
piece of ground, we must consider 
the continuous house system the best 
for such circumstances; but it is a 
mistake, and a bad one, for a person 
who wants to keep a large stock of 
fowls to use intensive methods. 

I do not mean by that that poultry 
cannot be made profitable under such 
conditions. It would be absurd to 
claim that they could not— for they 
have been kept at a good profit under 
such conditions by a great many peo- 
ple. But the profitable life of the 
intensive poultry plant seems to be 
short. The ground becomes contam- 
inated, and the stock does not thrive 
as it did when the plant was new. 
The system is a laborious one for the 
poultryman — keeping his nose on the 
grindstone all the time, and unless he 
is uncommonly pleased with that pro- 
cess, when results begin to be less 
satisfactory he becomes discouraged, and grows somewhat 
careless and slack about his work, and his plant soon 
becomes an unsatisfactory proposition. This has been the 
history of many a venture in which the poultryman, after 
a few years struggle, succeeds in getting his Intensive 
poultry plant on a paying basis, only to discover after a 
few years more how difficult or impossible It will be to 
keep the plant up to the mark made in those fat years. 

For all times of the year but winter, and perhaps we 
should include early spring, the easiest way to handle fowls 
Is to give them either free range, or yards so large that 
they have all the advantages of free range. ^ To keep fowls 
in this way houses of one or two pens are used. What- 
ever may be said of the relative merits of warm or closed 
and cold or open houses in winter, there will be no dis- 
agreement on the proposition that almost any old leaky shed 
will do for summer. 



[ 



The ideal poultry plant I would consider a plant that gave the best conditions for both 
winter and summer. That means practically two sets of buildings; continuous houses con- 
venient to the dwelling and to other outbuildings for winter, and separate houses distributed 
about the farm for summer. This is what I would have If I were keeping a large stock of 
poultry on a large farm. On a place of but a few acres, or on a small lot, I would be governed 
by circumstances. On my place now I have the two pen building described in Lesson IX., aud 
five smaller one pen houses distributed about the place. Winter before last we had these small 
houses up near the barn, the two pen house being farthest from the dwelling. In the spring 
all the small houses were put beyond the two pen house, the farthest away being some 200 ft. 
from it. Last winter the small houses were used as in summer, because I did not care to 
move them in and then back again in the spring. The intention is to have the south end of 
the barn basement fitted for poultry, and keep in it through the winter about as many hem* 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



101 



I i I II I I I 



B- 



A 





Bh 



IS the small outlying houses will accom- 
modate in the summer. This, as the 
reader will notice, Is b modification of 
what I call the ideal Bystem, which is a 
complete double system. 

For my own use, and for all round 
economy, I would use the double capacity, 
one set of buildings for winter, and the 
other for summer, rather than adopt the 
plan of grouping small movable houses 
together for winter, and spreading them 
over the farm in summer, because I believe 
it would be cheaper in the long run, and 
altogether more satisfactory. 

It is a good deal of a job to move a 
building having a capacity of over a dozen 
to fifteen fowls, anyway you do it. To 
move a lot of such buildings twice a 
year, it will take but a few years to make 
the cost of movings exceed the cost of 
a summer plant. Further, the moving 
of buildings twice a year may interfere 
seriously with other work ; or if other work 
interferes with it the delays are expensive, 
and may put operations out of joint for 
the whole season. Then the grouping of 
small buildings close together makes a very 
poor substitute for the continuous house system In bad 
winter weather. I would not say it was impossible to 
group the separate buildings temporarily, and arrange 
everything conveniently, but I havenotseen it done. Where 
1 have seen one pen houses placed close together, it would 
have iieen as well in my judgment to have placed them far 
enough apart to make a system of houses like my two pen 
house. Such houses placed with ends 30 to 50 ft. apart, 
and the rows of houses 150 ft. or more apart give a 
medium between winter and summer conditions of con- 
venience that will be found very satisfactory on small Section of Continuous Home With 
, . , ,. . , . , . , .« - , Connecting Pens and Enclosed Roosts. 

farms or on farms where it is desired to keep the fowls 

. tl „ „„ ».„ „ i B ground plan, 15 1 front, J> 2 partition 

permanently on the same ground. ' 

r • ° between pens. 

In conclusion I want to say to the reader debating the house question— Don't give undue 
weight to my opinion. I have tried to emphasize the need of adapting systems or plans to con- 
ditions. I would also emphasize the need of adapting them tc personal preferences. Because 
1 don't object to traveling even through the snow the few hundred yards which must be 
traversed in caring for my fowls as I have them in winter, it does not follow that you will be 
suited with such conditions. One reason I don't object to it is that that may be the greater part 
of my outdoor exercise at that season. If I were out doors all day it might be different. I 
might still continue to do it as on the whole the best arrangement, but very likely would con- 
sider that feature sometimes a drawback. 



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ur 


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d 

•AT 


ur 















Plan your buildings to suit your conditions, your methods of poultry keeping and yourself. 
If you have preferences indulge them unless you find them condemned by persons of good and 
fair judgment. Don't take anyone's ideas on authority unless the reasons they give seem good. 
Some useless features have been Introduced into all buildings in a community merely because 
some one who was successful had them in his building, though these features were superficial 
aDd did not at all affect results. 



102 



FIRST LESSONS ■ IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



Continuous Poultry Houses. 



The continuous poultry house, as the descriptive name indicates, 
compartments, or pairs of compartments united in one long building. 



is a system of similar 
The single pen or pair 



When a single pen is the unit, each pen throughout 
to a number of long buildings, is in construction a 



/ 



V V 



C\ 



c c c 



of pens is made the unit of the system 
the entire system, which may extend 
duplicate of every other pen. When 
the unit is a double one it is because 
the plan adopted makes some arrange- 
ments, as of doors, windows, roosts, 
and nests alike in the alternate, but 
opposite in the adjoining pens. 

Of the plans of separate and two 
pen houses, given in Lessons IX. and 
X., the first house in Lesson IX. is not 
adapted to become the unit of a system 
in a continuous house. A pen of the 
second house might be used as the 
unit in a short system, but the longer 
the house the more Inconvenient it is 
to have to go through the end pens to 
reach the middle ones, and I would 
say that it would not be advisable to 
use this arrangement for a house of 
more than four pens. With the 
dimensions used in my building this 
would make the house 56 ft. long. 

Mr. Davis' plan in Lesson X., as 
given, is not adapted to a continuous 
building. It might be made so by 
simply changing the position of the 



roosts. The 

plans given by 

M r . Pattison , 

Mr. Ryan, and 

Mr. O'Brien all 

tshow pens to 

which may be 

added similar 

pens, with the Section of Scratching Shed House Without Walk. 

Hame limitations C ground plan, C 1 front, C 2 partition between sheds, C 3 partition between pens. 

as I gave in commenting above on adapting my house to a continuous system. Mr. Gros- 

venor's plan needs alterations all around to make it a good unit for a continuous house 

system, though, as will be seen by comparison with some continuous house plans, the effect 

of his arrangement is not so unlike theirs. It is only, that dimensions and location of 

openings and fixtures are made without reference to possible adjoining pens. 

By reference to the classification of houses in Lesson VIII. , the reader may note that with 
very few exceptions the features there enumerated may be applied in the building of con- 
tinuous houses. The three general styles of construction are all used in continuous houses, 
while of the seven styles of roofs mentioned, only two — the monitor top and the double 
pitch east and west roof — cannot be used with continuous houses facing south, or nearly 
south, as most such houses do. 

Roughly estimating the materials for a continuous house consists merely in taking the esti- 
mates for one pen or section and multiplying as many times as the unit is to be repeated in 
the long building, except in this one point, that the ends of the building are the same for one 





FIRST LESSONS IX POULTRY KEEPING. 



103 



A 



A 



B 



^ 



pen or for twenty, and instead 
of the eolid wall between pens 
we have generally a partition 
partly of boards and partly of 
wire netting. For absolute 
accuracy i n estimates, one 
should make drawings of his 
completed house, and figure 
from the drawings; and to 
avoid errors in construction 
this should be done anyway. 
It is not always necessary that 
the amateur builder (most poul- 
trymen belong to this class) 
should follow the plan he uses 
in every detail of construction, 
but it certainly is advisable, and 
personally I would consider it 
necessary that before beginning 
building he should know just 
how he proposes to put his 
building together, and the only 
way I know of demonstrating 
to himself that he does know is 
to prepare a plan to be followed 
as he works. His plan may 
be very crude from an archi- 
tect's standpoint, but if it indi- 
cates what he is to do in such 
a way that he c;m go ahead 
without making mistakes that 
is all that is necessary. 

The figures accompanying 
show first a single sectiou of 



Diagrams of Tiro Pens in Continuous House, With Walk in Rear. 
In A the roosts run parallel to the walk; in B, parallel to division 
partitions. 

my two pen house as the unit in a long house. Next a pen of the same size and general con- 
struction, but with single pitch roof slopiug north, and with the interior arrangement changed 
to bring the roosts in adjoining pens, and the fowls on the roosts closer together, and make 
easier the enclosing of the roosts, if that is desired. This second plan would appear to be 
the better adaptation of my plans for fowls that seemed to require warmer quarters than I 
give. With this plan it is possible, by doubling the wall back of the roost, to keep the fowls 
as close at night us in a house built so all around, while the expense of building i3 much less. 
I would commeud this plan for a trial to any who hesitate to go to the extreme in simplicity 
of construction. 

The nests in this plan are placed along the rear wall, not as conveniently for the collection of 
eggs as the nests in the first plan, but better to prevent egg eating, if there is danger of that. 

The third plan shows a section of the once popular scratching shed style. Let me say in 
regard to this plan that, while I do not consider it the best or most economical when it is 
desired to keep as many fowls as possible in a given space, if the purpose is to keep fowls, 
especially those least able to stand severe weather in the best of condition, this style of house 
can be arranged to furnish conditions as nearly ideal as we can make them. 

It has been found in using scratching shed houses, as at first exploited, that the fowls gen- 
erally preferred the open shed. This may have been partly because they were fed there, and 
there was nothing to do in the other room but sit on nest or roost. Now most of those who 
built scratching shed houses wanted to stock them to the fullest possible capacity, and, finding 
that the hens preferred the shed during the day time, and that the muslin fronts were not alto- 
gether satisfactory, many of them put glass windows, or large wooden doors, or a combination 



104 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



of these in the front of the shed, and took out the partition between roosting room and scratch- 
ing shed, thus making a scratching room house. But some few breeders of fine fowls, with 
the object of keeping their fowls in the best possible condition, have gone back to what seems 
to have been the original scratching shed idea, and used the closed part as any other closed 
poultry house, making the open shed an additional protected outdoor privilege. Those who 
have tried this way of handling breeding stock think it pays. 

Walks in Continuous Houses. 

The plans we have been discussing do not provide for a walk in the house. When a walk is 
to be used the floor arrangement should be as in the accompanying diagrams. The first two 
are for the ordinary closed house, and are identical except in position of the roosts. The third 
shows how a scratching shed house is built with walk in the rear. On page 105 is reproduced 
a diagram of such a scratching shed house built some ten years ago. As far as 1 recall now 
this is the only house built on this plan I have seen. 

Houses are sometimes built with the walk in front of the pens. I have seen but one such, 
and have seen descriptions of only one or two others. The plan does not commend itself to 
many poultry keepers. The sun and light have not such ready access to the pens, and the walk 
lias to be elevated to allow the fowls to pass under it to the yards in front of the building. We 
amay consider this arrangement as warranted only by peculiar and insurmountable conditions. 

Doing the Work From the Walk. 

A number of continuous houses, both short and long, have been planned to do all work from 
the walk, with the roosts placed as in the second diagram, the nests under the droppings 
boards, and the feed troughs either below the nests or in the passage and accessible to fowls 
standing under the nests. Not many who have arranged this way will build after that pattern 
a second time. In — 

only a very small . ^ 

proportion of the \ 
houses so equipped 
have I found the 
work all being done 
from the walk as 
-designed. It is not 
nearly as conven- 
ient in practice as it 
looks on paper, aud 
when the pens are 
never entered in 
•doing routine work 
there is likely to 
be a great commo- 
tion among the hens Diagram Showing Method oj Building Scratching Shed House With Walk. 

-when it is necessary to go into the pen. v 

The Passing of the Continuous House. f 

The continuous house plan in its extreme developments was a fad. Men seemed to vie with 
each other in building long houses. From buildings 100 to 150 or at most about 200 ft. in 
length they went to in one case, as my memory serves, about 600 ft. The shorter buildings 
answered their purpose very well. The very long ones, as a rule, were on plants that failed, 
ami these unwieldy buildings clearly had something to do with the failure. 

Just at present there is reaction against intensive methods, and with it inevitably goes a lack 
of interest in continuous house plans which may easily be carried too far. In the preliminary 
remarks on this lesson I tried to show how and where the continuous house plan can be used to 
best advantage, and is superior to separate houses. In considering house plans, as in nearly all 
matters relating to poultry keeping, we will find it best not to commit ourselves unqualifiedly 
to any one idea. 



TTTn Vr^ — m — - 

r r 

s P * 

1 — ' M w 



105 




106 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING, 



LESSON XIII. 



Incubator Rooms and Brooder houses. 



IN DISCUSSING the topics under the title of this lesson, I shall not go into details of 
construction as fully as in the treatment of houses for adult stock, for these reasons : 
In the first place to do so would involve a good deal of repetition of what has appeared 
in the other lessons, for many small buildings used in connection with artificial methods 
are quite like some of those already described. In the next place the larger buildings for pipe 
systems of brooders must often be planned with reference to the arrangement of the heating 
system, and the incubator and brooder manufacturers that sell heating systems furnish plans 
especially suited to them, and I would by all means advise any who intend to build brooder 
houses for pipe systems of brooding to decide first on their heating arrangements, and build 
after designs furnished by the manufacturers. 



Incubator Rooms. 

For an incubator room most incubator operators prefer a cellar. It is desirable that the 
temperature of the room in which the machines are to be operated should not vary sharply 
with outside fluctuations of temperature. This condition might be obtained in a room wholly 
above ground by making the walls very thick, but such a building would be expensive. The 
conditions sought are as nearly as possible attained— and that at comparatively small expense 
by building cellars, as shown in the illustration. 

Sometimes the cellar used is under a building, but in general cellars built expressly for this 
purpose are placed at a little distance from other buildings. The use of the cellar of a hou>e 
or barn for incubators is quite common when the number of machines operated is too small, or 
the permanence of the use of machines too uncertain to seem to warrant the expense of con- 
struction of a special cellar. 

In making use of house and other cellars under buildings of more value than poultry build- 
ings generally are, one has to consider first of all how it affects his insurance. At present most 
insurance companies either refuse to take risks under such circumstances, or charge a very 
high rate. A movement is now on foot among incubator manufacturers to induce insur- 
ance companies to modify their regulations about incubators and brooders. Almost simulta- 
neously with the beginning of this movement some people in the insurance business seem to 
have discovered that harsh regulations about the operation of incubators and brooders were 
very poor policy. So it is likely that before long there will be a change In conditions, and an 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPIA/G. 107 

agreement as to the circumstances under which incubators may be operated in dwellings 
and such other places as people are likely to waut to use for them. 

More fundamental objections to putting Incubators in places not originally made for them 
are that too often the surroundings are not what could be desired. When an incubator is 
operated in a cellar or room used for other purposes it is too much exposed to outside 
influences, and when a part of such room is partitioned off for the incubators, the most favor- 
aide conditions for the operation of the machines are seldom obtained. The chief fault in 
ouch improvised quarters for incubators is the lack of suitable ventilation. A common 
cellar is often but au ill ventilated place at best, and the air In it good only when brough lo 
in stronger currents than are wanted in an incubator room. When a portion of such cellar 
is set apart for incubators the atmospheric conditions in that part are generally not made 
better than in the main cellar. 

How far poor ventilation of the place in which the incubators are operated is responsible for 




A New England Incubator Cellar. 

weak chicks and for losses of chicks which were thought all right when they hatched, it 
is impossible to say. Some of those making careful investigations into diseases of and mortality 
among artificially hatched chickens are beginning to be very strongly of the opinion that a lack 
of fresh air in the machines is one of the most common causes of trouble, and that this lack 
of air is due not so much to faults in machines, but to the imperfect adjustment of the sur- 
roundings — that is, of conditions in the incubator room to the requirements of the machines, 
and the impression gains ground that in future more attention will have to be given to the 
balancing of external and internal conditions of the artificial hatcher. 

It appears from some observations and experiments made recently that the time may soon 
come when directions for operating incubators will be much more comprehensive than at pres- 
ent, the necessary variations for different conditions being tabulated so that the operator may 
the better adapt the running of his machine to existing conditions. This may not be done with 
absolute accuracy, but far better than by guess. Perhaps I can make the meaning more clear 



108 



FIBST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



by an illustration from amateur photography with which many readers are somewhat familiar. 
The photographer can purchase a little book containing carefully worked out tables which 
enable him to determine in a moment just what time to give an exposure with the diaphragm 
of any given dimensions and with any possible combination of light and surrounding object*. 
By the use of such tables the photographer reinforces and regulates his judgment, and is enabled 
to eliminate from his work much of the risk of spoiling plates or films and losing much desired 
pictures. So in the development of artificial incubation we are evidently coming to a time 
when the operator will be given more appliances to record conditions he has to reckon with, 
just as the thermometer now records the temperature; and will be furnished tabulated instruc- 
tions as to the adjustment of the machine to conditions. 

Meantime the amateur incubator operator need not be discouraged because in the operation 
of incubators he must rely much on his own judgment. At this stage of affairs he may get as 
good results as others by simply being sure he is on the safe side. 

I went one day to see the new incubator cellar on a large duck plant in this state. It was 




One of Farrer Bros.'' Brooder Houses, W. Norwell, Mass. 

built something like that in the illustration, but with the walls high enough above ground to let 
in full half windows on the sides, while the roof was high in the middle. As you entered the 
door and looked about the effect was much like that of an empty church. In a church or any 
other building for large gatherings the walls must be high that there may be in the room a 
volume of air great enough to move and create the necessary ventilation without great change 
of temperature. The builders of this incubator cellar had the same end in view. There was 
ioom enough in the building for a cellar higher than usually used for incubators and for a very 
large loft over it. There was so much room that my first question was as to whether they had 
completed the building, or intended to make a loft. The reply was that the building was to be 
used as it was; that it had been planned to give abundance of air to the machines. I noticed no 
odor from the lamps and machines in that cellar. I have gone into many incubator cellars in 
which the odor warf very bad. In some of these this was because ventilation was defective 
regardless of the number of machines in operation ; in others it was because entirely too many 
incubators were in operation in the room. 



Fill s 7 ' L E s soys ix roc L I 'BY A E E PING. 



109 



Therefore, wherever you run an incubator see thai ventilation is good enough to remove bad 
air, and wherever you run more Incubators see that this good condition is maintained. That it 
is possible to hatch chicks in crowded cellars where the air is bad, there is no doubt. There is 
lots of it done. That it is such chicks that give most trouble many think they begin to notice. 
Build the incubator cellar as large as you are ever likely to use it. Though it may always be 
too large — better that than too small. Space in it not needed for incubators may be used for an 
egg room or for storage of light, clean articles, as coops, egg boxes, and baskets, etc. 

As to the structure of the incubator room : If a cellar, the walls below the surface should be 
of stone or brick, the floor of cement, the entire room above the ground lined with matched 
lumber, and the windows double, for this is a building iu which it is necessary to keep the tem- 
perature moderate, avoiding both extremes. 



Brooder Houses. 

In artificial brooding there are two systems. In one small brooders each heated by its own 
lamp are used. Iu the other a hot water or steam heater sends the heat through a system of 
pipes that extends throughout a building constructed on the continuous house plan. 

A pipe system is sometimes used for two or three hovers, hut in that case the heater is small, 
and the entire system quite as easily portable as an individual brooder. Usually the building 
for a pipe system approaches a huudrtd feet in length, and may very much exceed it. 

For individual brood- 
ers small buildings may 
be used, or the brooders 
may be put in such Ion? 
buildings as are used, for 
pipe brooding systems— 
a brooder with its lamp 
being required for each 
section in the building. 

For those who hatch 
only a few small hatches 
each year the individual 
brooder in its own small 
building i s generally 
more satisfactory. 
When the chickeus no 
longer need the extra 
View of Part of Exterior of Brooder House heat the brooder may be 

At I c oak Poultry Farm, Reading, Mass. removed and the build- 

ing used to shelter the growing chicks. Later it may be used for surplus cockerels or even for 
a pen of laying or breeding fowls. 

Individual brooders may also be used in such continuous houses as are used for laying stock, 
one brooder in each compartment; but the brooder house especially fitted for individual brood- 
ers is as a rule used for brooding only, and the same is true of the pipe brooder houses. 

Where large numbers of chicks are to be hatched in cold or cool weather I think the long 
brooder house with pipe heaters over the hovers is by all odds the best plan. 

We say, then, that for growing winter chickens, for growing broilers and for all chick* 
which must be kept indoors or closely yarded the pipe system is preferable when operations go 
beyond the number of chicks which can be handled in a few brooders. 

A few years ago a favorite style of brooder house arrangement was to build one end of the 
house for nursery brooders— these being individual brooders— for the youngest chicks and use 
the pipe system in the other end. A bank of pipes extended along the north wall of the nursery 
supplementing the heat of the individual brooders. This arrangement was devised because of 
the general difficulty in keeping youngest chicks under pipes warm through cold nights. Of 
late years it has been discovered that merely using a heater of sufficient capacity makes it pos- 
sible to maintain the heat under the pipes. 




no 



F1PST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 




Ground Plan and Cross Seclion- 



This house is only 3 ft. high at 
the plate on south (front) side, and 
5 ft. from the level of the pen floor? 
to the apex of the roof. The floor 
of the passage in the rear of the 
pens is excavated to a depth of 2 
ft. 

The width of the house is 14 ft., 
i he length of each pen being 10 ft., 
and the inside width of the walk 
3 ft,. 9 in. Each pen is 5 ft. wide, 
and is lighted by a half window (6 
lights, 9 x 12) in the middle of the 
front of the pen. 

To support the roof and carrv 
Brooder House at Lone Oak Poultry Farm. the panitioils between the pens 




there are two upright pieces of 2 x 3 scantling for each partition; one at the passage, going from the floor 
of the passage to the apex of the roof, and one a little forward of the middle of the house, which goes 
from the floor of the pens to the roof. Partitions between pens are of solid boards 2 ft. high. The 8 in. 
board extending from the passage half way forward is not a part of partition, but a board used to put 
across pens to keep small chicks close to the hover. 

The real trouble here, as so many places in poultry keeping, was false economy, the desire to 
keep close to the limit. Poultrymen put more chicks than they should in a brooder, then tried 
to keep the brooder warm through extreme cold weather with a heater only equal to heating it 
in ordinary cold weather. They have learned now that it is easier and cheaper to use a heater 
that will do the ordinary work required of it without working near up to its capacity than to 
try to get the results by overworking a smaller heater. 

In designs for continuous brooder houses, there has been variety without end. Almost 
every model of a continuous laying house, except the scratching shed and full monitor top 
plans, I have seen in brooder 
houses — and these may 
have been used. The pre- 
vailing style, however, i s 
the plain long house with 
double pitched roof, and the 
types of this style of house 
d o not vary strikingly i n 
appearance or construction. 
Some are full height (about 
d ft.) at the sides. Others 
are built lower, the front 
wall being not more than 
three and a half to four feet 
high, and the rear wall a 
foot or so high. In such a 
house the walk is excavated 
to a sufficient depth to <rive 
plenty of head room over 
it, while the rest of the 




Partition Between Pens and Passage in Lone Oak Farm Brooder House. 

This partition consists of two light frames for each pen covered with 

inch meal) poultry wire, and hung on hinges. 



FIBST LESSONS IN POULTBY KEEPING. Ill 

house has a floor only a little higher than ground outside. The object in building the house 
low is not so much to save cost as to conserve heat, the low building being more easily kept 
warm than the higher one. Whether there is, on the whole, any real economy in saving heat 
in this way Beema doubtful. From what I have seen of the low and the full height houses 
in operation, I consider the latter the better plan. There are several reasons for this: 

1.— The house heats up too much on warm winter days, and becomes uncom- 
fortable early in the season. 
2.— It is an inconvenient house to work in as soon as you have to get out of 

the walk. 
3 - It cannot be well adapted to other uses. 
These rea»ons will seem strong, or not according as those who consider them look at the 
points involved. It seems to me that the low roofed house fails to meet several conditions 
which may have to be considered in operation, while with heaters of ample capacity the 
advantage of reducing the proportion of cubic to floor space is not of such importance as 
when the smallest possible heater is used. 

Further, in view of the fact that it may hecome desirable to change the lines on which a 
business is done, it is good policy to use buildings adaptable to any line whenever it is prac- 
ticable to do so. 




112 FIRST LESSONS IiV FOUL TRY KEEPING. 



LESSON XIV 



Simple vs. So=Called Scientific Poultry Feeding, 



SIMPLE poultry feeding I would define as following, or trying to follow, the practice of 
successful poultrymen. 
It is what might well be called the " natural method " of feeding; and I might add 
that it seems quite the natural thing for the poultry novice to begin to learn to feed in 
this way. The first thing he wants to know about feeding is how successful poultrymen 
feed. Whenever he hears of unusually good, or even of average good results he wauts to 
know how those fowls were fed and housed — that he may treat his the same way. 

In a general way we may say that the instinct which prompts him to do this is a safe guide. 
In every matter' in life we learn by doiug as others do, and learn most by trying to follow those 
who have done best. 

As in other matters, one who tries to adopt the ways of another, or to follow general 
methods, does not always succeed. There may be various reasons for this; different conditions 
of which he makes no account may require a different method; he may not properly under- 
stand and apply the method ; or he may fail to adapt other features of his management to those 
he tries to introduce, etc. There is no way of guaranteeing success by imitation of the success- 
ful, but, on the whole, and in the long run, that is the way to achieve success, and,^as I have 
said, the instinct which prompts the beginner to find out and try to follow the methods of those 
who have succeeded is a safe guide. Following it, he may advance more slowly thau is agree- 
able, and his progress may be marred by mistakes, but if he persists he wins out in the end. 

In his efforts to learn how to feed poultry in the simple natural way the novice is perplexed 
by the lack of explicit, exact instruction on what seem to him the points where it is most 
necessary that instructions should be very specific, and leave no chance for mistakes. Most 
important of these is the question of quantity. He wants to know how much to feed in the 
aggregate, and the exact proportions of the different foods used in a complete or balanced 
ration. 

He finds no practical feeder willing to give him this information. If one can tell him just 
how much he feeds to a given number of hens under certain conditions, he qualifies the infor- 
mation by adding that this amount might not be just what the novice's flock of the same 
number might require, and that it also might be necessary to somewhat vary the proportions 
of the different articles in the ration. He must use judgment, feed according to results, con- 
dition of the fowls, etc. 

To many novices this lack of definiteness is exasperating. They cannot understand the 
necessity for it, and they conclude that the trouble is not that it is impossible to give specific 
instructions, but that those who give them qualified instructions for feeding have not observed 
closely enough to be able to be exact. 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING, U$ 

To the novice In this frame of mind comes the expert writer on scientific feeding, purpoi un- 
to give him in his science of feeding precise and exact instructions as to the feeding of fowls 1 
for any ami all purposes. 

This science of feeding is very interesting, and as long as certain essential things arc dis- 
regarded, seems very plausible. Let me state it briefly : 

The Modern "Science" of Feeding. 

The discussion of scientific feeding begins with the proposition that certain food elements of 
different character are required to sustain life, promote growth, and keep up the variou* 
functional activities of the body; and that the proportion of each of these elements required 
can be ascertained and expressed in mathematical figure?, which, in turn, may be taken by the 
poultryman and applied in his practice. It is assumed that in this way he may arrive at sure 
results and absolute economy in feeding. 

The Needs of an Animal Organism. 

The food which a fowl takes into its system serves these three purposes : — 
1. — To build up and sustain the organism. 
2. — To keep up the warmth of the body. 

3.— To furnish energy — strength — which is expended in every movement. 
Perhaps as the same classes of food elements serve the second and third purposes we can still 
further simplify the statement by saying that the two principal functions of food are :— 
1. — Nourishment. 
2. — Heat and energy. 
To provide for these two wants we have three kinds of food elements, technically known as 
j> r<>te ids, carbohydrates, and fats. 

These elements are found in varying proportions in the articles we use for poultry foods. 
Without attempting a scientific description of them I will give the following plain definitions 
suitable for the present purpose. 

Proteids for protein).— Albuminous or nitrogenous matter occurring in different forms in 
different kinds of food, but having everywhere the same essential qualities. In grains it is in 
the form of gluten. In milk it is casein ; in meat and blood, fibrin ; in bones, gelatin. 
Carbohydrates.— Carbonaceous matter, principally starches. 
Fats.— May be regarded as highly concentrated, condensed carbohydrates. 
The>e are the principal food elements. Besides them all foods contain some (and some a 
great deal of) water, and most foods contaiu mineral and fibrous matter which are mostly 
indigestible. 

The Theory of Scientific Feeding. 

The theory of scientific feeding is based on the assumed necessary relation of the needs of 
the fowl to the food elements which are given it to supply those needs. 

Thus the scientific authority on poultry foods says that having ascertained just what food 
elements, and in what proportions, were required to produce certain results with a certain 
number of fowls, we are able from this data to formulate a rule which will apply universally. 
Whether or not this is the fact we will inquire a little further on. 

The expert in scientific poultry feeding, following the lead of scientists in cattle (and Id 
human) feeding studies, makes use of two measurements of food values which he ( alls 
nutritive ratio and potential energy. 

By nutritive ratio he means the ratio of the proteids or nitrogenous matter to the combined 
values of the carbohydrates or starchy matter, and the fats, (the value of which are for the 
purpose reduced to terms of carbohydrates]. 

By the potential energy of a food he means its heating capacity, its fuel value, which he 
••xpresses in calories per ounce. 

His science of feeding proceeds upon the principle that, having established standards of 
nutritive ratio and potential energy as the proper standards, whatever combination of foods he 
can make that will figure out this ratio and this heating capacity, will be a complete or balanced 
ration, while a ration that will not figure out to such standards is an incomplete, ill balanced 
ration. 



Grain. 


Protein. 


Corn, 


10.4% 


Wheat, 


11.9% 


Oats, 


11.8% 


Barley, 


12.4% 



Fats. 

5% 


Nutritive 
ratio. 

1:7.9 


Potential 
energy. 

106 


2.1% 

5% 

1.8% 


1:6.3 
1:6.1 
1:6 


102 

96 

100 



114 FltiST LESSONS IN POUL1BY KEEPING. 

Some Scientific Fallacies. 

It is not necessary to explain the theory in every detail. Of more importance here are cer- 
tain fallacies promulgated in connection with the teachings of scientific feeding. Chief of 
these is the oft repeated statement that a fowl fed on a single grain — corn being most often 
used in illustration — would in time starve to death, because corn did not supply the elements it 
jieeded in proper proportion. Like most fallacies, this is a perversion of the facts upon which 
it is supposed to rest. Neither corn nor any other single article of food makes as good a diet 
for fowls as a ration in which a variety of grains is used. Nor is a grain ration, though com- 
posed of many different grains, as good as a ration in which vegetables and meat are used to 
supplement the grain foods, but the bad effects of poor rations are not so conspicuous as some 
say, nor is the difference in results always as marked as some would have us believe. 

To show the absurdity of the common opiniou that corn, as compared with such grains as 
wheat, oats, etc., is very deficient in " flesh forming" elements, and contains a dangerous 
surplus of fats and starchy elements, let us make a few comparisons, taking figures from the 
tables in " Poultry-Craft," which were made from U. S. government bulletins, giving average 
analyses of food stuffs : 

Carbohydrates. 
70.3% 
71.9% 
59.7% 
69.S% 

Now it is plain that ordinary or average corn has in it a smaller percentage of proteiu than 
any other of the grains in the list, and that its nutritive ratio is very much wider, and its 
potential energy higher. And if we accept as right the standards of nutritive ratio and 
potential energy given by the writers on scientific feeding, we must admit that corn is a very 
bad and dangerous food. 

But in regard to these standards the positiou I take is this: So far as I can discover, not one 
of these would-be authorities has in a scientific way established standards for poultry feeding, 
and the standards which they use, adapted from other lines of feeding, require combinations 
which no practical feeder would think of using. 

It might be said that this was because of the ignorance of the practical men, but as far as 
I am able to learn, no " authority " on scientific feeding has ever done any feeding that by its 
results attracted attention or made a reputation as a good and skillful feeder. 

Leaving out of the question then what the "scientists" say about corn as compared with 
these other grains, let us inquire what practical feeders find they can do with it in actual 
practice. 

The four grains mentioned above have certain physical characteristics which have to be con- 
sidered in feeding them. The prominent characteristic of corn is the size of its grains, an 
ordinary grain of corn being about five times as large as au ordinary grain of wheat. Hence, 
a fowl eating corn will pick up what it wants (provided the supply is sufficient) with about 
one-fifth the effort, and in about one-fifth the time, that it would require to get a meal of wheat. 
This means that fowls fed whole corn do not take as much exercise as they feed as those fed 
-mailer grains. In this point we find a reason why whole corn is not the most desirable food 
that is independent of its composition. The same objection would apply to any other grain if 
of like size. 

To overcome this objection to the form in which corn grows the corn is cracked to different 
decrees of fineness for fowls, and used in this form. I think ikwould be impossible for any- 
one to show in practice any appreciable difference in results of the use of cracked corn and 
wheat in moderate weather, while in extreme hot weather it would give less satisfactory, and 
in extreme cold weather more satisfactory results than wheat, all other constituents of the 
ration remaining the same. 

Nature's Checks and Balances. 

From the fact that under what might he called average conditions it makes no appreciable 
difference in results whether corn ((tracked) or wheat is fed it is reasonable to conclude that 



FIRST LESSONS IN, POULTRY KEEPING. 115 

the differences betweeu them which analysis shows have not the significance attached to them 
toy those who consider wheat a good and corn a bad food for poultry. 

We have then in a very large class of instances the same results from rations which chem- 
ically show a difference which if each food' element could be used only for its special purpose 
should also appear in the results. 

Why does it not up pear in the results? 

"Because the adaptation of each kind of food elements to its special purposes is not ri^id. In 
the digestion and assimilation of food a shortage of one kind of elements is made up, within 
limits, from an excess of another kind, or fail'ng that from reserves in the system of the 
animal or fowl. Just what the limits arc within which the fowl can adapt the food it takes 
to its wants we do not know. 

We may reasonably conclude thatthey are not fixed limits, but vary under different condi- 
tions and in different fowls. What we do kuow is that using the common food articles used 
by poultrymen iu about the proportions in which they are mostly used, we are in absolutely 
no danger of auy of the evils which " scientific " writers on poultry feeding assert are sure to 
result from improperly balanced rations. If feediug in this way we have trouble it is pretty 
Mire to be due to other causes than the composition of the ration. 

The Scientific Rules Don't Work. 

I have used com and wheat in the above illustration because wheat is generally considered 
the best single grain for poultry, and corn, though more extensively used for poultry food than 
all other grains combined, is by many writers called a very unsafe and bad poultry food ; and 
also because in corn we have the grain which is farthest from the assumed standards of scien- 
tific feeding. If comparisons of results of feeding wheat and corn in rations in which each is 
made the exclusive unground grain food indicate anything at all, they show that it is nearly 
always possible for the fowl given a sufficient supply of either to adapt it to its needs, and 
therefore that it is not necessary for the poultryman to try to balance the ration exactly before 
deeding it. 

On the other side it is possible to show that oats, which theoretically are classed as nearest 
the correct standard for feediug of any grains, are not eaten well by the fowls if they can get 
other grains, and unless the oats are of much better quality than it is usually possible to get 
in our markets, fowls will eat only enough of them to sustain life. So if we take wheat as 
our standard grain food and compare other grains with 't both as to composition chemically and 
as to practical results in feeding, we find that the food which is theoretically poorer is practi- 
cally better, and vice versa. 

From which it follows that the application of the assumed feeding standards is not a reliable 
working rule. Whether other standards could be selected which would give us a rule that 
would work accurately we need not here inquire. To date they have not been. 

Fixed Standards Not Applicable to Varying Conditions. 

There is another mosfe important point to consider: — Fixed standards can only exactly fit 
certain conditions. If it is necessary that the feeder should exactly^^pt the ration to the 
needs of the fowl, it is necessary that he should vary the ration to suit vary.itrg* conditions, and 
of course he must know just how and how much to vary it for any given conditions. 

In the simple, natural method of feeding, the feeder'- aim is to give the fowls enough food 
and iu such simple variety that there will be be no serious shortage of any one element. 
Beyond this he does not try to go, but leaves it to the appetite of the fowl to select what pro- 
portions of each food shall be taken into the system, and to the natural operations of the 
digestive system to further compensate for errors of appetite. 

The scientific feeder may say that by his system and by the use of his rules or his rations 
the desired economies of food are made certain, and nothing left to the chances of the fowls' 
appetites or functions, but this is all theory that has never been demonstrated. 

Still another obstacle to the practical application of the methods of scientific feeding is 
found in the lack of uniformity in quality of poultry foods. The analyses given are average 
analyses. As a matter of fact a lot of corn may contain more protein than the particular lot 



116 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

of wheat with which it is compared. Without an analysis of every lot of every article he 
feeds the feeder does not know how closely he approximates the standards he tries to apply 
in scientific feeding, and is in reality as much in the dark and leaving as much to nature as one 
who simply follows common practice. 

The plain truth about scientific feeding as it has been expounded for poultrymen is that 
what there is of it cannot be applied by common poultrymen under common conditions, and 
that it leaves out of consideration the variations in the needs of fowls from day to day which 
must be reckoned with if there is to be anything like an exact adaptation of rations to actual 
needs. 

And the essential difference between simple or natural, and scientific feeding of poultry is 
that the first trusts much to inherent tastes and tendencies presumed to be implanted in the 
organism by the creator, while the other depends wholly on arbitrarily assumed and arti- 
ficial rules. 

The Summary of the Whole Matter. 

In a nutshell the question of scientific feeding is simply this: 

The exposition of it has an academic interest, but to attempt to put its formulas into practice 
is to attempt to work a problem in which some of the necessary factors are not given, and can- 
not be obtained. Our science of poultry feeding is but a " fragment of science." 




IILXT LESSOSS IX POULTRY KEEPING. 117 



How to Learn to Feed in the Natural Way. 

To acquire skill iu feeding fowls one must practice feeding, closely observe results, and use 
bis judgment. Suppose I tell a boy that to project a ball through the air for a given distance 
a certain amount of energy must be applied, and applied in such a way that the ball, moving 
with the velocity given it, must describe a certain arc as it moves through the air. A scientist 
who perhaps could not throw a ball within two rods of the spot he desired it to reach might 
have figured out all about energy, velocity, etc., applying to the movement of the ball; but 
what good would it tlo to tell all this to the boy? And what boy in his senses would think of 
going out to play ball, and," as he prepared for the first throw, stopping to say to himself, " I 
must put into this throw just so much strength, and the ball must leave my hand at just such 
an elevation?" No, the boy takes the ball and throws it at the point he wishes it to reach. The 
accuracy of his aim depends mostly on his previous experience and skill in that line. If he 
misses, he tries again, and without being very conscious of its efforts, his mind, too, works all 
the time, comparing each throw with others, and estimating differences and gradually bringing 
the muscles under control so that before long the boy is sending the ball to the mark every 
time, and he may acquire marvelous control of the ball, not only in accurate throwing and in 
speed, but in throwing it so that its path shall be eccentric, or its speed changed in seeming 
defiance of nature's laws as it flies through the air. And all this he does without either know- 
ing or caring anything about the scientific expressions of the various features of his perform- 
ance, There is practically no limit to the number of illustrations that might be made on this 
point. Every line of work and every sport abounds in them. 

When men work with machines, or with problems in which all necessary quantities and 
conditions are known, they may be guided more by set laws and rules, but even in such cases 
experience and trained judgment and skill are essential to superior work. In handling live 
stock it is impossible to follow arbitrary rules and get the results the rules anticipate with the 
uniformity that would justify such use of rules. The poultry feeder has to learn by experi- 
ment and observation how much to feed and when and how to vary his rations. 

Nothing Hard About It. 

From what has been said of the composition of the common grain foods, and of the functions 
of appetite and the capacity of the system of the fowl to adapt the food given it to its require- 
ments, the reader may see that experiment and observation on poultry feeding do not neces- 
sarily mean intricate and puzzling processes. On the contrary they are simple and easy, 
requiring only very ordinary attention, just such attention in fact as must be given to any 
process or work requiring some exercise of judgment. 

The greatest obstacle to learning to feed poultry well is that so many amateurs are wholly 
self trained, and are taught through books and papers, and such teaching and training cannot 
be anything like as effective as personal instruction. In addition to this the poultry keeper who 
begins in mature life to learn poultry keeping, and who is trying to learn and to make it pay at 
the same time, feels the effect of his errors and luelficieucy much more than does one who 
learns while working for someoue else. That is one reason why I always urge people going 
into poultry keeping to begin in a small way and increase very slowly. It takes time to acquire 
skill in feeding, and it is terribly expensive to practice ou large stocks of fowls. 

Another thing to consider is that the results of feeding are sometimes dependent upon or 
affected by circumstances which the novice either fails to see as in any way related to the feed- 



118 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

ing problem, — or does not see in their true relation to it. Not infrequently the method's- he 
adopts make good feeding difficult, aud sometimes some little peculiarity in a person's way of 
managing his fowls will, when discovered, account to the experienced adviser for eomtinuecR 
poor results. Such peculiarities and trifling errors are very bard to locate throwgh corre- 
spondence. 

Leave Out .* Original" Ideas. 

In general I think that a large part of the difficulties of amateur feeders may be traced to> 
some "original" ideas or combinations of methods that they have introduced into their poultry 
keeping. To me the easy assurance with which novices in poultry keeping go about the 
improvement of methods recommended by experienced poultry keepers is a never ending puzzle. - 
How few of them are willing to take simple instructions and follow them to the fetter! 

Still, to be fair to the novice, I must admit that a good deal of what is written for him about 
poultry keeping only adds to his confusion, and as those who know the least about it are usually 
the most positive in assurances of good results if their instructions are followed, and therefore 
seem to him the best instructors, he is very apt to prefer the less reliable instructors and 1 
instruction at first. 

If a novice in feeding, (and by novice, in this connection, I mean any one who has not acquired' 
a fair skill in feeding), will follow the method used by any successful poultryman right through,, 
he will generally be getting fair results within a short time. It may be — and often is the case — 
that there are poor features, or unnecessary features in the methods of the more expert poultry- 
man. As to this, the novice should not attempt to judge, or if he forms an opinion,, should not 
make it the reason for a departure from the method, but should learn from some one of more 
experience whether the change he contemplates would work well. 

Having adopted general methods of cariug for fowls and of feeding which have given such' 
satisfaction to some others that we may call them "tested" methods, the novice should direct 
all the attention he gives feeding to making a success of feeding by that method. 

Let him remember that whatever method he may try will give him the results he seeks only 
in proportion to the skill he acquires in using it. There are many good methods— many tested 
methods of feeding, but his skill is as yet undeveloped and his capacity untested. If he changes 
methods he simply begins over again, and many a time when success comes by some method of 
feeding adopted after a brief trial and rejection of several others, that success is not due to that 
particular method of feeding alone, but is the result of the whole experience acquired., and 
would almost certainly have been attained sooner by persistence in the first method adopted. 

■»« Practice Hakes Perfect." 

Take any good method (there are many of them) and learn to use it. As far as the instruc- 
tions given are definite, try to follow them to the letter. Where they tell you to use your judg- 
ment, but give as they usually do, some statement of what should be about right,, begin by using 
these approximate instructions and follow them until you have reason to suppose that some 
variation from them should be made. Then make the variation slight. For instance, in feeding 
fowls what is called "a full feed" of grain, the amount an average laying hen will take is an 
ordinary handful— not a heaping handful, but what one would grasp in the hand with the hand 
closed enough so that even if turned over only a few grains would fall. This is a rough way of 
measuring grain, but with practice many poultry men become surprisingly accurate in measur- 
ing grain out in this way as they scatter it for the fowls. They know or should know how 
many fowls are in each flock. If they expect the grain to be eaten up clean, as when fed on 
bare ground or very short litter, they give what they think the fowls will ctean up. If they are 
feeding in deep litter they give more— as much more as they think necessary to let the fowls get 
a full feed of the grain in the time allowed. The judgment as to quantity does not have to be 
absolutely accurate every time, because as we saw in considering scientific balancing of food 
elements, the fowl could adapt them to its needs to some extent, so a fowl in good condition will 
not suffer if occasionally short-fed, for it has its reserve* of fat to draw upon. Also the fowS 



FIBST LESSONS IX POULTBY KEEPING. 119 

occasionally over-fed is not injured by it. If the feeder " is onto his job" be quickly notes that 
the food is not eaten, or if it is eaten the appetite is poorer at the next meal, and he feeds short 
for a meal or two, or perhaps omits a meal, and the fowl is soon feeding right again. 

Feeling the Way. 

To go back to the novice, if feeding what he estimates to be the average amount his number 
• >f fowls should get, they are in good condition and laying well, he may reasonably conclude 
that he is feeding about right, and keep right on giving that quantity. 

If the fowls while in good condition, bright and hearty, do not lay well, the natural conclusion 
is that they need a little more food, and the ration should be increased. In such a case as this 
it is advisable to handle the fowls to ascertain just what condition they are in. If rather thin in 
flesh it is better to increase a little on every feed. If in pretty fair flesh it may be better t<> 
increase only on one meal each day,— for if fed too heavily they may fatten instead of beginning 
to lay as desired. 

If hens begin to show lack of appetite, and " go off their feed," the rations should be reduced . 
and if a mash is fed it is best to make the principal reduction in the mash, for that is the meal 
that they get with least effort, and exercise is one of the best restoratives of condition and 
appetite 

When in doubt the novice should reread his instructions, and if he fails to find in them, 
information that seems to suit the case, should not hesitate to ask questions. He should al>o 
try to make himself a good judge of food stuffs, for often the quantity to feed depends to some 
extent on the quality of the feed. Thus in feeding wheat I discovered a number of years ago- 
what doubtless hundreds had discovered before, and thousands since, that hard wheat fed 
further than soft, and that red wheats, being generally harder, were more economical poultry 
food than white wheat. Again, in feeding damaged foods, one must sometimes make allowance 
for the damage; and, in feeding wheat screenings containing other matter, must estimate the 
amount of waste and feed accordingly. Also in feeding mashes; though a bulky mash fills the 
crop up more quickly, it must be fed more freely than a rich concentrated mash, when the 
intention is to make a full feed of the mash. If we suppose that the feeder makes geuerally 
what we may call a standard mash, and that in feeding it he allows one large iron spoonful to 
two fowls, if he makes a more bulky mash, that is, a mash with a larger proportion of such 
bulky and not highly nutritious stuffs as bran and clover, he must allow more. If he makes a 
highly concentrated mash with a large proportion of coin meal and of beef scrap or other meat, 
he mu-t feed less than the usual quantity , for his fowls accustomed to cease eating when the 
crop has reached a certain stage of distention, are very apt to eat at first ju>t as much bulk of 
the concentrated as of the ordinary mash. If they are of robust digestion it may not hurt 
them any. If they are not he may quickly have some bad cases of indigestion on his hands. 

In using the bulky mash be may find that the fowls will not eat more than their usual bulk 
Allowance of it. mid if this is the case, and if it is necessary that they should get the same 
nutrition as before, he mu>t increase on some other feed. As the reader may have guessed 
from what baa been Bald, giving the mash more bulk is one way of satisfying the appetite of 
fowls without giving them more nutrition than they need. The occasior for this depends on 
the eating habits of the fowls, which vary us much as the eating habits of people. 

The Three Prime Factors. 

It would be possible to make a very long article of this, and then not have considered more 
than a very small part of the possible illustrations of adjustments of feeding. From what has 
been said 1 think most readers will see that the important factors in feeding fowls are common 
tense, familiarity with food articles and with fowls, and practice; and that the feeding of 
fowls is not a matter requiring special academic education, and familiarity with technical term* 
and scientific methods, but a simple, every day process in which a person of very limited 
education and utter ignorance of "science," as it applies to poultry feeding, may become highly 
proficient, and in which, in fact, the mo>t successful feeders are men and women who give no 
attention to scientific expositions of feeding problems. 



120 FUiSl LESSON* 13 FOULTHY KEEPING. 



LESSON XV. 



Poultry House Fixtures. 



THE necessary fixtures of the poultry bouse are : 
1 . Boosts — with or without droppings boards. 
2. Feed troughs, boxes or hoppers. 

3. Drinking vessels. 

4. Nests. 

5. Receptacles for grit, shell, etc. 

6. Dust boxe Q — in houses with board floors. 

A poultry keeper may find places and use for all the articles enumerated, or he may ^et along 
with only a few of them. He may have his few fixtures simple and inexpensive— or may 
make the furnishing of his houses quite an item of expense when compared with the cost of 
the house and the value of fowls kept in it and of their product. He may make all fixtures 
himself, may convert old articles and utensils of various sorts to uses as furnishings for his 
poultry houses, or he may take his choice of ready made articles that run from plain to elabo- 
rate in construction, and from moderate to high in price. On a large plant there is a decided 
advantage as well as appropriateness in having the fixtures uniform throughout the plant. 
The poultry keeper works faster and easier when the same operation is to be performed in the 
same way all through. On a small plant it does not make so much difference, yet uniformity 
is always attractive. On the score of appearances, too, the fixtures should be in quality in 
keeping with their surroundings. Shabby or makeshift fixtures may not look at all out of 
place iu a cheap, roughly built house, but they do look most decidedly misfits in a house with 
some pretensions to fine finish. On the other hand, fine fixtures do not go well with very 
plain houses. 

The fixtures for a well finished house need not be elaborate. It i9 possible to have them 
simple ami plain, yet well made and neatly finished, and quite as inexpensive too as rougher 
articles of the same pattern; and, all things considered, the poultryman is wisest who plane his 
house and provides his furnishings with an eye to simplicity, for complicated plans and elabo- 
rate fixings make it harder to keep a house clean, and make harboring places for the vermin 
of various kinds which infest poultry houses. 

Droppings Boards. 

Tn the list of fixtures roosts are mentioned as with or without droppings boards. The need 
of the droppings board will depend on the methods of the poultry keeper. If he keeps his 
bouse close and finds it advisable to remove droppings daily, or every few days, he will find it 
more satisfactory to use droppings boards. If he keeps his house open, and can allow the 
droppings to accumulate under the roosts as long as they make no odor, he should leave out 
the droppings boards. 



FIBJST .LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 121 

Some of the farmers of Rhode Island divide the floors of their poultry houses in the middle, 
(the roosts being at one end and the door at the other) by a board set on edge. A cart load of 
Baud is put in the half next the door in the fall. At intervals through the winter a few shovel- 
fuls of this are scattered over the droppings on the floor at the other side of the board. By 
spring all the sand has been moved, and is mixed with the accumulation of droppings for the 
entire winter, and the compost is carted off at the convenience of the farmer. 

In these houses the roosts occupy about half the house. In the ordinary poultry house the 
roosts, according to number, extend two to three feet from one wall, usually the rear wall. 
Many poultrymen put a board on edgejust in front of the roosts to keep the droppings from 
being M-attered over the floor and the litter in front out of the droppings, and allow the drop- 
pings to remain for weeks without removing. If the droppings are of normal consistency and 
the earth of the floor or an applied absorbent takes care of the moisture in them, and if the 
house is thoroughly ventilated, there is no objection to this. But if droppings are soft and 
watery, or any fowls are sick, or if either for want of proper absorbents or lack of ventilation 
the Mnellof the droppings becomes objectionable they should be removed. To have stated times 
for cleaning up is well, but the poultrymau should remember that his rules are made for the 
degree of cleanliness he wishes to preserve, and that the prime thing is to preserve that degree 
of cleanliness. He should clean as often as necessary. His rules merely represent what his 
general practice determines is necessary. 

The board in front of the roosts may be left out and the hens allowed to scratch the litter 
hack over the droppings. This is the practice that I prefer. The droppings will not be 
worked forward to any noticeable extent on a littered floor, for the hens scratch mostly away 
from the light, and pile the litter up at the back of the house. The coarser litter may be 
thrown forward with a fork, leaving finely broken stuff to mix with the droppings, and the 
mass may lie for weeks without any odor from it being discoverable. In very steady cold 
winters I have let the droppings lie four months. In warmer winters have found it necessary 
to remove often, but rarely oftener than once in four or five weeks. 

If droppings boards are used they should have smooth upper surface, be wide enough to 
receive all droppings from the fowls as they sit on the roosts, and unless they have an unusually 
wide margin would have a strip on the front edge to keep droppings from being scattered. 
The droppings board under a single roost should be 20 to 24 in. wide; under a double roost 
30 to 36 in. 

The board should be 8 to 10 in. lower than the roosts. It is generally placed level. Occa- 
sionally it is made on an incline to allow the droppings to roll off, but most poultrymen prefer 
to clean the droppings from the level board. If droppings are soft it is necessary that boards 
should be kept well sprinkled with some absorbent such as dry earth or sand or land plaster; 
coal ashes and airslaked lime will answer, but the articles first mentioned are better. 

If the manure is to be sold for tanning purposes no absorbent can be used on the boards, and 
as they quickly become saturated with the water from the droppings, the droppings boards in 
houses from which manure is saved for tanning are often repulsive in appearance even when 
supposed to be clean. 

Roosts. 

The roosts in a poultry house should be all together, all on the same level, and as low as may 
be without depriving the fowls of the use of the floor space below them. The old ladder-like 
arrangement of roosts was a bad one. The fowls would crowd for the top perches, crowd 
each other off, and in such accidents and in jumping from the upper roosts in the morning 
many fowls were injured. Usually one or two roosts the length of one side of the apartment 
are all that a pen of fowls require. The Rhode Island farmers alluded to above have roosts in 
half the house, but their fowls are expected to be out doors most of the time, the snow rarely 
lying long there. The conditions in their houses when the hens are occasionally snow-bound 
are not the best. 

The form of the roost is not of as much importance as many suppose. The primitive roosts 
were round poles, and some still insist that they are better than squared roosts. Evidence to 
support this proposition is not abundant. Wide flat roosts, three or four Inches wide, seem to 



122 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



give the best general satisfaction, though a good many use roosts only two inches wide and! 
either flat or more or less rounded on the upper sicie. 

Whatever tbe upper surface of the roost, it should be thick enough to sustain the weight of 
the fowls without bending or breaking. An inch board will answer for short roosts, or for 
roosts for light fowls up to about 8-foot lengths. For heavy fowls a roost 8 ft. long and 4 
in. wide should be quite 2 in. thick. A roost of such dimensions and length needs support 

only at the ends, but 
longer roosts should 
have support in the- 
middle as well. Tbe 
roost should be- 
strong enough and. 
its supports such that 
it remains level and 
firm when filled with 
fowls. A roost that 
sags is likely to break,, 
and some of the 
springing roost is most 



23 




Strip Attached to Wall to Support Ends of Roost§. 

»uch event, be badly hurt. Besides the saggin 
> any one may discover by watching the fowls on it. 



fowls might in 
uncomfortable, i 

For supports for roosts we have quite a variety. I use at the ends simple strips as shown 
in the cut, with notches in them to hold the roosts in place. These strips are fastened to the 
walls with screws, and are easily taken down when the house is cleaned. In fact all the 
fixtures in my houses are such that a compartment can be stripped bare in a very few 
minutes, a matter of considerable importance when fighting 
lice. 

Just here let me say that with reasonable cleanliness and 
healthy hens given opportunity to dust themselves, 1 have 
never had any trouble with lice in the houses. But because 
of the number of persons reporting it as impossible to get rid 
of lice though they were very thorough in treating the prem- 
ises with that end in view, I did, several years ago let my 
buildings ^et literally alive with red mites. Then stripping 
them of fixtures, whitewashing the walls, and using insect- 
icides on roosts and nests, I had no trouble in clearing the 
premises of mites in short order. The way the houses were 
built and furnished made the work easy. I would not care 
to take the job of cleaning some nouses I know of mites. 

For a middle support for long roosts I use a similar strip 
attached by one end to the rear wall, and by the other to a strip 
hanging from a rafter. 

There are severaJ styles of roost brackets, (all I believe of .*•-&&■ 

the anti-louse type, with oil cups attached), on the market 
that are very good. 

Some poultrymen attach the roosts to strips which hinge to 
the rear wall, so that the two, or more, roosts together swing 
back against the wall during the day. 

Where droppings boards are used the roosts may be 
attached to the walls as just described, or may rest on the K ~yf7y?7 r ?7~?7^~/7y'y ''fls 
droppings boards. Various kinds of iro-n and wooden legs or Method of Supporting Long Roosts at 
standards to support roosts above the droppings boards have Middle. 

been devised. I think it may be said that in general the supports from the board interfere 
more or less with the removal of the droppings, especially when the ends of several roosts rest 
on the same support. 

So far we have been considering only plain straight roosts. Quite a number of ingeniou* 



-^ E 



Flh'ST LESSONS JX P0ULT11Y KEEPING. 



12$ 




|^s 


B 


^ 


^^0\S^^> 


^ 



arrangements designed to prevent crowding on the roosts have been devised and reported as- 
highly satisfactory, but these rarely take with any but the inventors. In fact, I could not now 
name a single one that had gained any popularity. There is rarely serious crowding on the 
roosts if roost room is ample and the roosts on a level. Give fowls an allowance of a foot, or 
quite that, of roost room each, and you will have little trouble with crowding. As hens sit 
close on the roost they don't occupy so much room, but some allowance must be made for 
opportunity to shift positions and get up and down. 

Feed Troughs, Boxes and Hoppers. 

Most of the feed troughs used are very simple. The accompanying cut shows cross sections 
of the styles most commonly used. The V-shaped trough and the single trough with low 

straight sides are ofteuest seen, but I think the double 
reversible trough with straight sides is the best of all. Its 
superiority is marked on a large plant. 

Many different patterns of troughs have been devised to 
keep the fowls out of the troughs and to keep them from 
crowding while feeding. Some of these are shown in 
accompanying illustrations. I have used a good many such 
troughs, but went back for good long ago to the open 
troughs as much easier to feed in. 

I discovered accidentally a few years ago that it was 
much easier to feed fowls in short wide troughs than in 
long narrow ones. I needed some additional troughs, and 
being pressed for time, thought I would make shift for 
awhile with a few of the shallow boxes in which small 
potted plants are sold, which I happened to have on hand. 
The.-e boxes are about a foot wide and 16 to 18 in. long,, 
the sides being about 2 in. high. I allow one such box to 
8 or 10 fowls, and find that with the boxes a few feet apart 
1 can throw or drop mash in.to them from a spoon or shake 
it from the pail much easier than into narrow troughs, and 
do it so quickly that the flock is fed before the crowding 
begins. I am still using some of these boxes and some nar- 
row troughs, and the advantage of the wide short trough 
seems as plain as ever. Though I have not tried it, I think 
a box a foot square would answer for just as many hen> as 
theoblong boxes 1 have. Occasionally when feeding a flock 

of chicks I find that they 
have outgrown their trough 
accommodations. I give 
them some mash in the 
earthen saucers I use for 
water, if those happen to he 
empty, and I notice that nearly half as many 
chicks as are pushing and crowding around a 
trough three or four feet long, will feed com- 
fortably and quietly in a circle around an 8 in. 
saucer. The reason is easy to discover if you 
watch the chicks for a few minutes. At a long 
trough the fowls and chicks are constantly chang- 
ing positions. At a short box or round pan all 
the food is within reach of all the fowls about it 
at the same time, and there is no inducement to 
Protected Feed Troughs. move. 

Sometimes the feed trough is attached at one end by a hinge to the wall of the house, and 
when not in use Is raised and secured in position against the wall. The advantage of this is not 




Cross Sections of Feed Troughs. 
A v-shaped trough, a board fixed on 
keep fowls out of trough. B 
'■hallow box trough. (' double or 
ble box trough. 





124 



FIB ST LESSONS IN POULTBY KEEPING. 



as great as would be supposed, for dirt and litter collect between the trough and the wall, and 
when the trough is let down a good part of the dirt is likely to drop into the trough, necessitating 
raising it again to allow this dirt to drop out. Taking one thing with another, more poultry 
men prefer the loose trough, and though some hang the troughs up on pegs or large nails when 
not in use, more leave them on the floor all the time. 

A fixed feed trough in or next the passage is sometimes used, but this arrangement is quite 

rare, and I have 
seen more than one 
plant in which it 
had been installed 
where the feeding 
mash was fed in 
movable troughs in 
the pens. 

For feeding dry 
grains i n bulk, and 
ground feed stuffs 
dry self-feeding hop- 
pers are much bet- 
ter than troughs, and 
if feeding is regularly 
done in this way hop- 
pers should be used. 
The illustrations show 
different methods of 
constructing hoppers. 
The size required 
depends on the size 
of the flock and the 
frequency of f e e d- 




; r -i 1 "" 

• • | i 

i 

; h : 
; ; i s 

[, ! ! i 



Dr. Cottage's Hopper for Dry Feed— Five Compartments. 



Fig. 1— Cross Section. Fig. 2— Front View. 
ing. Some poultry keepers keeping hens on the colony system, with free range, use hoppers 
large enough to hold a bag of grain. 

Drinking Vessels. 

Of these there is a great variety made especially for fowls, and a still greater variety made 
for other or general purposes are used for drinking vessels in the poultry yard. 

Of the drinking fountains made especially for poultry, some are stone ware; some of 
earthenware; some of metal., usually galvanized iron. Most of them are of the self-feeding 
pattern, a receptacle for water over a shallow pan into which it feeds by pressure, keeping the 
pan full as long as the water in the reservoir holds out. Some have reservoir and saucer in 
one piece, others in two pjeces, that they may be separated and more easily cleaned. 

While a great many such drinking fountains are in use, the greater number of poultrymen 
seem to prefer an open vessel, at least for adult fowls. For chicks perhaps the majority prefer 
self-feeding fountains with shallow pans into which the chicks cannot get. These fountains 
too are better for fowls having large crests and beards or combs and wattles. 

For an open drinking vessel for fowls or good sized chicks, almost anything that will hold 
the required quantity of water will answer. I use mostly 6 qt. wooden pails, but have a gal- 
vanized iron pan or two, and one old porcelain lined open kettle. On one of the largest plants 
in this vicinity all the drinking vessels are porcelain lined iron kettles holding about a gallon 
each. On another plant stone jars of about the same capacity are used. On a farm I visited 
a few years ago, I saw shallow cast iron pans, as I remember about 2£ or 3 in. deep and 8 in. 
square, which the owner had had cast at a nearby foundry for that purpose. The cost was 
I believe about 15 cents each, but after this lapse of time I would not say positively. 

As between closed and open drinking vessels the latter seem to be preferred by most poultry 
keepers, except as noted above. Theoretically and in the eyes of the novice the covered 



FIHST LESSONS IV POULTRY KEEPING. 



125 




vessel is better because it is supposed to keep the 
water cleaner. Practically the open vessel is easier 
to keep clean, and further is less dangerous to the 
health of the fowls when not absolutely clean, 
because air and light, the great purifiers, get into it 
as they do not into a closed vessel. An objection some 
— mostly novices— make to the use of open vessels is 




Hopper for Fouls. I topper for Chicks. 

Aniti- Wttati l'f-<1 Hoppers Designed i>y Subscriber io F.-P. 

that occasionally the fowls void their 
droppings into the water. It must be 
admitted that the eight of a drinking 
vessel so polluted offends the senses, 
but as a matter of fact neither fowl* 
nor other animals are as nice as refined 
human beings about matters of this 
kind, and no harm results from occa- 
sional pollutions of this kind which are 
removed at the next watering. As a 
further matter of fact, the dust which 
in any poultry house or yard will often 
get into a drinking vessel, whether 
open or protected, is as dirty and more 
dangerous. By using open vessels that 

a tt . i «, D ****«*\oR™*°* w *U- , , ,, :ire as d"p as the fowls can drink 

A— Exterior ^ i<\v. B— Interior View, a— block to hold nest . , , 

in place. from, and no larger in circumference 

than necessary to keep thetn from being easily upset, very little droppings will get into 

them. It is the wide shallow pan that catches the droppings. 

Nests for Laying Hens. 
Number of Nests Needed. — The old method was to provide almost as many nests &s there 
were hens in the flock. Indeed I have before me an old drawing of a model poultry house for 
twenty-four hens in which there were 




w '.Wl I. c- 



twenty-four nest>. It was early observed 

and continues to be observed, that no 

matter how many nests are provided, the 

hens usually all go to a certain few of the 

ne»ts, and rather than lay elsewhere will Dark Nests to Oo Under Droppings Boards. 

crowd on those nests or sit near them waiting their turns. 




126 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTEY KEEPING. 

Most poultry keepers still continue to provide many more nests than are used. I find a nest 
to every five or six bens enough, and have often allowed only one nesl to seven or eight hens, 
.say three nests in a pen of twenty to twenty-five bens, and found the niiowance satisfactory, 
«ven when the hens were laying well. That, however, depends on rhe flock. Sometimes all the 
liens in a flock are quick layers, again they are slow to very slow, or the /aying habits of the 




Triple Set Skeleton Nests in Place in Poultry House. 

Sbens are very uneven. So I allow as a rule one nest to a pen of three or four hens, two to a pen 
of six to twelve hens, and from four to six to a pen of twenty to twenty-five hens, according as 
they seem to need them. 

Styles of Nests. 

The nest boxes should be movable. Whenever more than one nest Is necessary it is custom- 
ary to make the nests in sections of two or more. Sometimes these are built under the drop- 
pings board, but even here the construction may and should be such that the nests are easily 
moved and taken out of the house for thorough cleaning and airing. 

It has been a very common practice to make and place the nests so they would be quite dark- 
This is done in part because the hen is supposed to prefer a secluded place to lay, and in 
part to prevent the development of the egg eating habit among the hens. 

To economize floor space as much as possible, it is customary to place the nests on the wall 
several feet from the floor; or if they are put under the droppings boards, these are usually 
placed high enough to allow the hens the use of the floor below the nests, though sometimes 
in a house with low north wall and roosts next this wall, the nests are on the ground, with the 
droppings board forming the top of them. 

Leghorns and other high flyers will go as a rule to the highest nest accessible. I once 
nailed a small box in a corner close up to the roof in a pen of Silver Dorkings, and all but one 
or two very heavy hens would go to that nest though there were others more accessible. 
Hens of the larger breeds will often go to the corners on the floor of the poultry house to 
lay, no matter how many or how attractive nests are provided for them elsewhere. It is 
very difficult to break hens of that habit. In many of them it is hereditary, and the best thing 
do do is to either put a box — a common soap box is good — on the floor in the corner, and let 
*hem use It for a nest, or by fastening a nest to the wall a few inches from the floor try to 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



127 




Double Skeleton Nests. 
The nests as photographed Were attached lo an outer door 
to get full light and a position that would show construction. 
This frame is 12 in. wide;28in. long. Ends 10 in. high in front, 
M In. high at back. Front strip 4 in. wide; 2 back strips 2 in. 
« Lie. 



induce them to lay in it. After 
Ihey begin to lay in this nest it may 
he raised gradually from the floor 
until it is at the usual height. 
Some hens, however, will make 
their nest on the floor as near the 
corner as they can, no matter what 
arrangements are made to tempt 
them to do otherwise, and all that 
can he done with them is to put a 
iow box in the corner so that the 
eggs will not be rolled out or cov- 
ered up. 

For several years I have been 
using nests reproductions of photo- 
graphs of which are shown here- 
with. These are my own design, 
and as far as I know none like 
them are in use except such as 
were made from them. I like them 
better than anything I have used, 
and poultrymen who see them 
seem to take to them. The object 
was to make nest boxes that were 
as near skeletons as possible, easy 
to keep clean, and easy to knock 
apart for thorough cleaning if that 
seemed necessary, and put together 
again. In use in my houses these 
nests have seemed to have some 
desirable effects, some good points 
which I had not anticipated, 
chief of which is that with them 
the hens seem to have no favor- 
a hen gets up on the front rail and 
lilways steps promptly into the empty 



ites. but go to one as readily as to another. When 

finds one nest occupied and the next vacant she almost 

aiest. Just why she should do this I cannot say, unless it is because the divisious between the 

nests being so low in front, as long as she remains perched on the edge of the nest the empty 

nest is right before her eye. 

The nests in most of my houses are on the side wall or cross partition near the front where 
they get the full light, yet I have not found the hens more disposed to go to the corners of the 
bouse to lay than when I tried to humor them by giving them secluded nests, and I have had 
very little egg eating in them. I find eggs broken, but not touched many times oftener than 
I find evidences of broken eggs having been eaten. 

It would l»e premature to consider any general principle or fact as proved by my observations 
on these nests, but I am inclined to think that In trying to devise an easy nest to clean I inad- 
vertently stumbled on a point which is of some use, i. e., that the nest on the floor, entered 
from the floor, and the nest with running board in front to accommodate the hens, are the great 
encouragers of egg eating, because in such nests the hens have better opportunities to spy out 
the condition of things in the nest, and also the waiting hens have a better vantage ground 
from which to quarrel with the hens in the nest than in nests like these, or boxes nailed to the 
wall. The hen in this nest has all the advantage of position. 

My nest boxes are made with the bottom a little narrower than the ends, and the strips next 
it on front and back are placed about half an inch from the bottom edge of the end and 
division pieces. This leaves a space too narrow for an egg to go through, yet wide enough to 



128 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

drop through any nest material or dirt that cannot be easily lifted out with the hand. There- 
are in these nests no coi tiers formed by three sides, no places for dirt to mass and collect. 
The nests can be cleaned inside without removing them, or detaching any part of them. 

Receptacles for Grit, Shell, etc. 

Where supplies of all these accessories are kept constantly before the fowls, the best way to do 
is to have self-feeding hoppers with as many compartments as there are articles used. Usually 
there are three — grit, shell, and charcoal. I use only shell, and for it have small boxes nailed to 
the wall near the door in each house, just high enough from the floor to let the fowls get at the 
contents easily. If I had more fowls or used more of these accessories I would use hoppers 
for them, but we have old butter boxes more than enough for the purpose, so what's the use of 
buying or making hoppers? 

As to the use of these articles : Shell is generally agreed to be indispensable. Grit and char- 
coal are so considered by the majority of poultrymen, but I am free to say that in my own yards 
I have never found any advantage in the use of charcoal. I used a good deal years ago, quit 
because I could see no benefit from it, and have never been able to see that my fowls suffered 
for want of it. Advocates of charcoal with whom I have discussed this will insist that the 
fowls would be better for it, but that is begging the question. 

Grit I used with shell until a few years ago, and quit it because I found that when constantly 
and liberally supplied with shell the fowls hardly touched the grit. 

I would not conclude from my experience that no fowls needed grit and charcoal, but it 
seems very plain to me that mine do not. Fowls managed differently might, and of course mine 
might get in condition that would require them. So while personally I discard the two articles 
mentioned, as I leave out some of the tasks of poultry keeping that are generally done on the 
" better be sure than sorry " principle, I don't advise anyone else to do so. I merely say that 
these things do not seem to be always essential, and that if a man can have confidence enough 
in his own judgment to determine when they are needed, it is not necessary for him to con- 
stantly supply articles or regularly perform tasks merely to be sure that he does not err through 
omission or neglect. Each one can easily determine for himself how much grit or charcoal his 
fowls will take, and to what extent they seem benefited by them, or to suffer from lack of them. 

Dust Baths. 

In a house with an earth floor, no special dust bath is needed. Clear away the litter occa- 
sionally from a space near the door or window, where the sunlight falls on the floor, see that 
the earth here is loose, and the fowls will prefer 6uch a place to the old fashioned dust bath. 
This for winter. For other seasons you need do no more than fork up a little spot here and 
there in the yards. 

Where the houses have not earth floors dust baths must be provided. They may be made by 
putting a board diagonally across a corner and partly filling the enclosed triangular space with 
dry earth ; or the enclosed space may be square or rectangular in form, two boards joining at an 
angle which projects into the floor being required to make the two sides of this dust box, or a 
box with sides and bottom may be used and shifted about as desired. 

Failing a supply of dry earth, coal ashes may be used, but their effect on the skin and plum- 
age of the fowls is bad. They take away the oil in them, leaving feathers rough and brittle, and 
the skin dry, and leave the feet and shanks in a condition in which they are especially suscepti- 
ble to the attacks of the scale insect. 

To add to the effectiveness of the dust bath in ridding the fowls of lice, lime, sulphur, etc., 
are sometimes mixed with it, and doubtless give it additional virtue, though the dry earth alone 
is sufficient provided hens have opportunity to use it freely. 



FIRST LESSONS IX POULTUY KEEPING. L29 



LESSON XVI 



Poultry Fences and Yards. 



THESE two subjects we have to consider together. The height, and to some extent 
the kind of fence required depends upou the size of the yard even more than upoi» 
the powers of flight of the fowls to be restrained. When fowls are confined to 
small yards the height of the fences must be adapted to flying capacity, for the fowl* 
>o closely restricted in movements will do their best to break bounds. When yards are lar^i- 
the fowls may be restrained with very low fences. I have had fowls that would quickly fly ;t 
six foot fence when in a small enclosure so surrounded never even attempt to go over the 
three foot fence of a larger yard, and I have seen Leghorns in a large yard where, on the 
side toward "the road was a stone wall one could easily step over, that I was told never 
went over the wall — a statement which I could credit because of what 1 saw of the fowl- 
iu their yard, and did not see of evidencesof their having been outside. This, however, we 
must regard as an exceptional case, and I would not advise anyone to trust to a low stone 
wall to keep any active fowls out of places in which there was something to tempt them, 
ami where they might do some damage. 

The low fence to be effective must be one which oft'ers no inducement to the fowl> 
to try their powers of flight. A fence of pickets or laths presents a top line on which the 
fowl can secure a footing. A wire fence of any of the styles in common use oflers no sucb 
renting place if the stakes or posts are small or pointed at the top. This is one point 
in favor of wire netting. Other points are cheapness, durability, ease and quickness of 
construction, and adaptation to temporary fencing. This last feature of wire fencing is one 
that is only beginning to be appreciated. It is most conspicuous when low fences are used, 
thougb the high temporary fence may be made with but little more trouble. 

The Simplest Fence. 

Except for gate posts at the few places where there are gates, and for the fence of the 
fly of the house built for pigeons, I have no set posts for my poultry fences. All fences 
are on stakes driven into the ground. When the ground is soft we drive the stake right 
into it; where hard or stony we first make a hole with an iron bar. It Is not necessary, ••- 
when using lumber, to have posts equally distant. I generally drive stakes four paces 
apart, but if at the point marked for a stake I find a stone the bar will not displace, 
move a few iuches or a foot if necessary, either way. Except at end posts or gates the 
wire for temporary fences is fastened to the posts with only two staples, one next the ground 
and the other at the top of the wire. These staples are not driven in tight, only enough to 
hold the wire, leaving a quarter of an inch or more of the staples to give a good hold to draw 
it out by. For wider fencing proportionately more staples should be used, as the additional 
weight of wire increases the strain on those near the top. With wire three feet wide and less, 
the strain on the staples is very light. 



130 FIB ST LESSONS IN POULTBY KEEPING. 

Fences built in this way are easily and quickly built, and easily and quickly taken down and 
put away or moved. For Brahmas I have fences from two to three feet high, preferably two 
and a half feet. The widths varied because sometimes when I wanted an extra roll or two 
of wire 1 could not get thirty-inch stuff, so took what I could get. Two feet is rather low, 
though only old males are likely to cross it. Three feet is higher than necessary, and a little 
harder for the poultry keeper to walk over. 

For Rhode Island Reds, Mr. P. R. Park uses four foot wire, placing his posts or stakes 
farther apart (as 1 recall ii about twenty feet) With posts fai enough apart the wire will 
(slack enough in the middle to allow one to step over. A man of average height or above 
the average, not overburdened with flesh, will get around much quicker going over fences 
this way than opening and closing gates. A gate is a necessity if a wheelbarrow is to be 
taken through the yards, but even with gates all round it is easier and quicker for the aver- 
age man to step over the fence — beside the gate. For a short man it is a different proposition. 

In this style ot fencing there are no boards, no part of the fence tight. The lower wire 
rests on the ground; where there Is an elevation too abrupt for it to follow it will double 
over, where there is a depression which leaves an opening below it, it may be drawn 
down close with pegs driven inio the giound 

A possible objection to fencing In this way is that males may fight through the fences. Mr. 
Park's Reds get used to each other, and do little damage. I have had no trouble with 
Brahmas except in a few cases where males began " scrapping' through the wire, and in 
a rush and spring together landed both on the same side of the fence. Then the fight was 
to a finish. No serious fighting through wire netting is possible. This year I had one male 
I was not willing to take any chances on, and between his yard and the next one containing 
a male I doubled the fence, the yards joining only for a short distance, and there was no 
fighting at all. This double fence was made just as the temporary fences I have been 
describing, with only a few inches between the two fences. Last year where there was 
danger of males damaging each other, I ran a second piece ot thirty-incto wire above 
the first. The objection to that was that you could no; walk over such a fence. The parallel 
lines of low fence prevent fighting, while not interfering with the method of going from 
yard to yard. The simple way of fencing poultry just described is applicable only when there 
is room enough to give good sized yards, and especially wide yards. It will not answer for 
such narrow yards as are usually used with continuous houses; nor in the limited space in 
which many must yard their poultry, nor where males with large combs are kept; nor is it 
advisable for permanent fencing. 

It a fence is to remain in the same place permanently it is better to build it, though of wire, 
more substantially, to set the posts plumb and firmly, to fasten the wire on well, stretching 
it to fit; and I think it is better to put a six-inch board along the ground, especially if one 
wishes to keep the grass or the ground smooth, clean and well trimmed along the fence. 

About Permanent Poultry Fences. 

More and more poultrymen are beginning to agree that the permanent poultry fence is a bail 
thing'— an evil to be tolerated, perhaps, in some places, but avoided wherever possible. It is 
only when poultry keeping is on a very limited scale, and the poultryman can keep his small 
yards thoroughly renovated— in fact, treating the yards as he does the house, that the evils 
of permanent fencing are done away with. 

The great fault of permanent fencing is that the yards, unless very carefully looked after, 
soon become foul, while the fences so interfere with a thorough working of the soil that the 
noil either is not thoroughly worked or is worked largely by hand tools, and a< great expense. 
The result of this condition is that the yards are generally not thoroughly worked over, and 
• lipase and filth lurk in the corners, about the posts, and under the fence boards, furnishing 
the unsuspected cause for many a supposed mysterious epidemic. 

A- In discussing the structure of the poultry house and the character and arrangement 
of the fittings, I tried to impress on readers the importance of having everything plain and 
Bim pie, because this made It easier to be thorough in treating the house for lice especially— 
but, also, in all ordinary cleanings— so in regard to the arrangement of yards and fences I 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 131 

would emphasize the importance, which as a plant grows old becomes necessity, of making 
It easy as well as possible to keep yards thoroughly clean. It Isn't much of a job to Bpade 
over a large area on paper; but it takes time and lots of muscle to do the actual work on a 
comparatively small plant. Even when yards are so arranged that the greater part can be 
ploughed, there must be a strip along each side of every fence that lias to be worked over with 
spade or fork,— a tediousjob. 

This difficulty of giving the soil of the yards proper attention is one of the strong argu- 
ments against the continuous house plan as an all year round plan. Some poultrymen, notably 
those growing winter chickens, and some of the large duck growers, use stake and wire netting 
fences for the outdoor runs connected with their brooder houses, and after the young stock is 
out of the brooders, take up all fences, plough the ground, and sow to some crop, usually 
winter rye. This annual renovation and disinfection of the yards has been an important factor 
in their continued success with intensive methods. It is more easily adapted to brooder house 
yards than to yards in which laying stock are kept, but unless a poultryman is very much 
crowded for room, or has a very large stock, it should be possible to get the laying hens out of 
their permanent or winter quarters for at least a few months in the summer and early fall, and 
so make an opportunity for a thorough cleaning up and purifying. If the house is so situated 
that yards can be made both front and back, and used alternately, the problem becomes easy. 
Temporary fences may be used. Yards in front of the houses may be used for a year or two, 
then all fences removed to the rear of the house, and the ground in front kept in cultivation or 
gra.«s for a year or two. The character and extent of the land, and the requirements of the 
situation, have to be considered in determining just how to work the rotation, and how to 
arrange the chickens and the crops. On some soils a rapid alternation would be better; on 
others, yards might run for a series of years without any pressing demand for change. This 
is especially true of some of our porous, sandy sites in New England. Indeed I have seen 
some places here where if the land was not overstocked with fowls so that it would get too 
foul between rains, poultry could be kept on it indefinitely without any other purification of 
the soil than is brought about by natural agencies. This condition, however, would not obtain 
if yards were small, and the washing of the soil interfered with by post and boards of perma- 
nent fences, beside which the droppings would lodge instead of being carried away. 

It is to be observed, further, of such a location, that the fertilizing elements which, retained 
1n a soil unused, poison it for the fowls running on it, being either washed away or dissolved 
and leached through the light surface soil, are wasted and lost, while with an alternation of 
yards on richer, heavier soil the fertilizer can be made to contribute something to the income. 

I know a very few plants on good land where stock has been kept low enough, and grass 
yards in such good condition that the bad results of permanent fencing have not developed, but 
most poultrymen who yard their fowls need to change the runs often, or else give as careful 
attention to the cleanliness of the yards as of the houses. 

The Usual Permanent Fence. 

The prevailing style of permanent fence for small to moderate sized yards is a fence six feet 
high, the first two feet of boards, the remainder of wire netting. Posts are usually set eight 
feet apart. With the wire no top rail is required. The netting is made fast to the posts and 
to the upper edge of the board part of the fence with staples. For such fencing the common 
two inch mesh poultry wire netting is used. 

Fences on this general plan are sometimes made with lath in place of wire, but that style is 
not as good or as satisfactory. I used lath fences for the yards of a plant I built fifteen years 
ago. but after a few years experience with them, resolved never to do it again. My object in 
using lath was to have the shade which it would give the fowls in summer. It was all right for 
that, but it also made too much shade in the yards in winter. It would have been better to put 
for shade in each yard some sort of shelter that could be removed when not wanted. The 
great objection to a lath fence is that the wind soon works the laths loose, and in a compara- 
tively short time they get to the stage where not even frequent circuits of the fences driving in 
the nails will keep them in good condition. By all means avoid the lath fence. Use wire, and 



132 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

if shade must be provided, make shelters of boards or cloth, or plant trees in the yards. The 
trees answer permanently ; the other shelters will do until the trees are of size to make shade. 
Japanese plum trees have been favorites with poultrymen. They make a quick growth^, and 
for a few years bear well, but are short lived. Some poultrymen have planted plum, cherry, or 
peach trees, or some of all of these in their yards, alternating with apple trees. The other 
trees will have passed their prime by the time the apple trees are crowding them out, and can 
then be taken out, leaving a nice apple orchard. 

A six foot fence is not always necessary for small yards. For Asiatics It is higher than 
required, and is also higher than needed for some American breeds; but if yards are small it 
is better to make fences high, unless it is certain they will never be used for fowls that can fly. 
The additional cost does not exceed half a cent per running foot of the fence, and the six foot 
fence is practically safe for all the popular varieties of fowls, while a five foot fence is not high 
enough for a small enclosure for Leghorns, and many fowls of all breeds but Asiatics can go 
over it if they try. 

The six-foot fence, while generally safe, wilt not answer for light, active fowls that have 
acquired the habit of flying over it. For such various devices have been tried, some of which 
seem to work in one case, some in another. Rarely the fence is built to a greater height than 
six feet. Oftener a narrower strip of wire netting is placed at the top of the fence, in a 
horizontal position, being attached to horizontal strips of wood fastened to tbe tops of the 
posts. This wire extends out a foot or more from the perpendicular fence. The object is 
to prevent hens which have caught the trick from alighting on the top wire of the fence 
proper. Sometimes instead of wire netting one or more single wires are strung to cross 
pieces on top the posts, the purpose being the same, to have tbe fowls flying for the top of the 
fence strike them and be thrown back ISone of these devices are absolutely sure. To be sure 
of retaining breeding fowls in small yards with six-foot fences the yard must be covered over 
with wire netting. 

In this connection it may be well to point out that flying is with fowls very much a matter 
of habit. Chicks that are raised where they have no inducement to fly, or where the fences are 
so high that they could not fly over them until quite well grown seldom get into the habit. 
Those which find conditions and fences which encourage flying early acquire the habit, and it 
becomes difficult to break them of it. There are of course some differences due to breed and 
family, but on the whole fowls kept where the fences easily retain them while small rarely 
become troublesome as flyers. 

Gates. 

Gates are usually made like small sections of the fence of which they are a part. Different 
styles ot self-opening and closing gates have been devised, but the old simple gate seems to 
hold its own. Probably because it is inexpensive and reliable. The hinges are sometimes of 
springs, or a spring is attached to the gate to shut it, but the poultryman who is wise in his 
craft will not rely on a spring. A strong breeze often swings a gate which is not securely 
fastened, fowls slip from one pen to another; there is confusion, annoyance, and often serious 
loss from such mischances. It Is safer to have every gate fastened with a fastening that can 
be depended upon. 



tin ST LESS OSS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 183 



LESSON XVI I 



Getting Ready for Winter. 



THE ideal state of the work in a poultry yard is to be always prepared— ready for the 
special work of each season as it comes. When this condition exists, the work is 
easier, and results more reliable. 
We may say in discussing the matter academically that this ideal condition ought 
always to exist, and that in as much as he fails to attain it, the poultryman shows poor man- 
agement or poor j udgment. But in practice we find even the best poultrymen able to maintain 
this ideal condition only occasionally, even when their operations are on such a scale that so 
far as it depends upon them, nothing that needs to be done need be delayed or neglected. 
When, as is oftener the case, the poultryman is diligently making the most of every promising 
means of adding to the proceeds of the year's work, a setback making a difference of only a 
few days in certain preparations or results may easily handicap him through the remainder of 
the season. 

Besides such delays as this, there are occasionally others for which he may not be at all 
responsible. Of this kind are delays in getting out chicks, due to disappointing fertility in the 
first eggs set. The effects of such delays may extend through more than one season in spite of 
all that the poultryman may do to overcome them. 

I call attention to these things not to discourage anyone, but because a full appreciation of 
possible difficulties in the way of any undertaking is nearly always a condition of success in 
it, aud the average poultry keeper is too prone to put off special preparations until the occasion 
for them becomes urgent. A mistake at auy season, such procrastination is doubly danger- 
ou> at this season, for fall weather is uncertain, winter may set in earlier than anticipated, aud 
winter conditions often make it impossible to do work that needs to be done. There is less 
chance of recovering lost ground at this season than at any other. Hence the urgent need of 
forwarding the development of the stock, and the preparations for winter protection and 
comfort. 

Keep the Young Stock Growing. 

There may be some very early pullets that by moving about, and by light diet, need to 
be held back from laying until October, but the greater part of the young stock should be fed 
now all it will stand, and it should be able to stand very heavy feeding. 

The conditions now are especially favorable to rapid growth. In northern latitudes where 
excessive heat is rarely long continued, growth should have been good right through the 
>uinmer. Where summer heats are oppressive, the growth of the chickens may be very slow 
through July and August, but with September they take a fresh start, and to make up as far 
as possible they should now be pushed to the limit of safety. 

With the cooler weather of this season we have still days that are long enough to get in three 
good meal9, and still have time for the digestive organs to rest a little in the daylight interims. 
Later when the days grow so short that the meals come closer together the fowls will not take 
and assimilate a9 much food, and that is one reason why it is so hard to push them when it is 



134 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

neglected until the failure of the pullets to begin layiug early in winter plainly indicates the 
need of forcing. Then the keeper is often disappointed in results, the pullets not seeming to 
respond as they should to the t extra food and special care given them. 

It is of greatest importance that through the fall the fowls should be well fed. The need of 
good feeding at this, and at all times, would appear to be so self-evident as not to need to be 
thus specially emphasized, but for many years, and in the experiences of a very great number 
of poultry keepers, I have noticed a tendency to skimp the feeding at this period. 

The most common cause of such efforts to economize is that the poultry keeper is carrying 
a stock of growing fowls too large for his finances, and in his efforts to go into the winter with 
a certain number of possible layers, he not only keeps many pullets which ought to be sold for 
poultry, but, in order to go no deeper in debt than is unavoidable, he gives his stock a mere 
maintenance ration, which, in the case of the pullets, means delayed development, and in the 
case of the old hens, slow molting and retarded resumption of laying. The policy of short 
feeding is often pursued until the lack of results at the expected time points to something 
wrong, and then the poultry keeper expects in a few days, of special feeding to make up for 
weeks or months of insufficient rations. 

It may happen occasionally that it is advisable to feed short with early pullets that would 
otherwise begin to lay sooner than was advisable, (with the risk of a molt early in the winter) r 
but such cases are comparatively rare. Most poultry keepers with most of their stock need to 
feed all the stock can stand. 

The Best Way to Economize in Feeding. 

The expense of feeding a stock of growing, and, as yet, unproductive pullets, is nearly 
always a heavy burden on the poultryman working up a stock, because the proportion of 
unproductive to productive stock is usually much greater than in a flock established for some 
time upon a given basis. To make the burden as light as possible, the poultry keeper should 
cull his pullets closely, retaining only those that are vigorous, strong, and well developed for 
their age. If, after such culling, he still has more than he can give proper care, let him sell 
a part of the remainder, and bring the stock down to what he can " swing.'" 

Many poultrymen are reluctant to do this because they feel that in thus reducing their stock 
in advance of the season of its productiveness they are deliberately cutting off a large part of 
the most promising source of income. That would be the case if the pullets were all good, and 
if the whole number could be carried, to maturity in a proper manner. I am not, however, 
talking now to those who are able to keep the pullets growing, but to that large class who try to 
economize in feeding at this season, and then wonder why they do not get results a little later. 
The most profitable course for them is to reduce the stock to what they can give liberal 
rations. It is a great deal better for one who is sailing close to the wind in his poultry business 
to go into the winter with 100 pullets ready to lay in November than with 300 that will not lay 
until February. For the 100 will give a profit all winter, while the 300 will not begin to pay 
for their keep by their winter laying. In sections where eggs command high prices through 
the most of the year, one may make perhaps as much on a flock of late pullets beginning to lay 
in February, and laying late the next year, as on earlier pullets that began to lay at the same 
age; but if he needs the income from the hens to pay his feed bills, and has to go into debt if 
eggs are not forthcoming, he should strain every nerve to get eggs early, and keep no more 
pullets than he can carry without seriously handicapping next year's work if eggs come slowly 
this winter. If one has room for them, and is able to handle them, late pullets may be very 
profitable. Not so the early pullet that lays late. 

Keeping the stock down, or cutting it down at this stage, is one of the essential features of 
building a poultry stock or business up slowly. Just as mady readers in mid-summer found 
that it had been easy to get out chickens enough to overcrowd their accommodations before the 
chicks were half grown, so about this season many are made to realize that they have been 
able to rear to present stage of development, and have accommodations for more chickens than 
they are financially able to take care of until they begin to produce eggs. The common practice 
is to go in debt for feed, and even then feed short. The better way is to reduce the stock. 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 135 

Culling the Young Stock. 

Apart from the point of a ponltryman's financial ability to carry what Btock he has, is the 
queation of the policy of keeping it all. Nearly all poultry men— -even those of long experience 
and generally satisfactory success, hold more of their stock than is w i>c. 

I'nless a stock has been bred by very careful selection, and is very uniform in quality . 
there is almost certainly a considerable percentage of both pullets and cockerels not worth' 
reserving for stock purposes. The very backward inferior specimens of both sexes should be 
relentlessly weeded out. There is no profit in keeping them. The novice who has thorough- 
bred stock is likely to think that all being of the same breeding, every specimen must have 
some value for stock purposes. The inferior pullets he has no use for himself he holds to sell to 
BOflM one who wants low price stock. They are salable for such purposes if the price Is made 
low enough, but I don't think that in the long run it pays to make such disposition of them. If 
one is selling thoroughbred Btock and wants to make a reputation that will profit him in coming 
j ears he cannot afford to let such poor stock go for breeding, at any price — much iess at a low 
price. Cockerels of like quality he holds to sell to the trade that buys at $1.50 to $3 each. 
Neither does this pay. Considered individually, there is some profit in the cockerel sold before 
spring at $2.50 to $3, but on a lot of cockerels of low grade it is generally impossible to figure 
a profit that will pay for giviug them house room aud attention. A few birds lost or unsold 
in such a lot offset the narrow margiu of profit on the others. The novice with no established 
trade will as a rule find it safe to dispose of all but the best tenth of his male birds before 
winter. This will seem to many rather radical culliug. Let those who doubt the wisdom of 
such policy keep account with the cheap cockerels they hold over. As to selling any consider- 
able proportion of cockerels of that grade at this season, it cannot be done. The trade that 
lakes them is on the whole a trade that buys only at the beginning of the breeding season. 

If, then, the reader wishes to put his poultry keeping for the winter on the best possible 
economic basis, let him dispose of all pullets that are not thrifty aud vigorous and likely to 
begin laying before midwinter, aud of all but a few of his best cockerels. These with such old 
hens as he has selected to keep over should give him a stock that reduces his chances of loss 
to the minimum, while what he receives from the sale of the discarded stock may go a good 
way toward paying the keep of the remainder until it begins to be productive. 

Putting the Stock Into Winter Quarters. 

The pullets not already in winter quarters should go there as soon as possible now, for their 
laying will depend somewhat on conditions being good, and no further disturbance necessary. 

They should not be crowded, but given as much house room as is to be allotted to them 
through the winter. It is generally found a mistake to crowd them into winter quarter-, 
perhaps to twice the capacity of a house, thinking it will be time enough to reduce the num- 
ber when they begin to lay. They should have as much house house room now as when ■ 
matured. 

The Importance of Fresh Air. 

To say that pullets should now be in winter quarters does not necessarily mean that the 
houses should be operated as in winter. If cold houses are used there will be no difference 
perhaps; but if the houses are tight, warm, and are to be shut up in cold weather, the winter 
method of operating the house is not suitable to present conditions. 

This is the season when colds seem to develop and become epidemic without such plain 
causes of colds as may be found later on. Most of the cases of epidemic cold developing now 
are due not to cold, but to heat. The houses are shut up too early, the air in them is close and 
bad, and the fowls and chickens accustomed to more open coops and houses during the sum- 
mer, take cold. For years there has been hardly a case of colds reported to me in earlv fall 
that was not evidently due to lack of ventilation and fresh air, and reports of results of better 
ventilation have almost invariably shown improvement as a result of the more air treatment. 
Better keep doors aud windows open until real winter weather comes. 



136 FIB SI LESSONS JA POULTRY KEEPING. 

Making Houses Ready. 

While it is better to have houses iu first class shape, clean, and the floor (\i of earth) 
renewed, when the pullets are put into them, it is much better to put the pullets in the houses, 
and fix up afterwards than to keep them out until the houses are ready, especially if (as is 
quite generally the case) the pullets are by this time overcrowded in the summer quarters. 
The ideal way, as has been said, is to have everything ready at its proper time, but this is so 
difficult to accomplish that many times we have to take the course that seems to have the least 
disadvantages. 

When detached houses are used it is much easier to clean up while the house is in use than 
when houses are on the continuous plan, but even in that case with a little ingenuity iu shifting 
the fowls from pen to pen as cleaning progresses, the fowls being driven and not handled at all, 
it is possible to do the work almost as expeditiously as if the houses were empty. 

With me the cleaning process consists in removing all of the earth floor that shows any 
mixture of droppings, brushing down walls and underside of roof with a broom, filling the 
floor with new earth, and making whatever repairs are necessary. Sometimes the interior is 
whitewashed, though that seems to me generally not to be necessary for cleanliness, but rather 
advisable because it makes the place look better, and makes the light better on dark days. 
These advantages make whitewashing well worth doing if time can be found for the work, 
hut if something has to be left undone, let it be the whitewashing rather than the renewal of 
the floor, repairs, or alterations that will make the winter's work easier. 

Look Out for Mites. 

When cleaning up the house look out for j-ed mites. They are most likely to be found on the 
undersides of the roosts, and about the supports on which the roosts rest, and about the nests. 
If they are present, indications will be plain, even before the mites themselves are seen, in the 
abundance of greyish white specks about their harboring places. If these specks, resembling 
fly specks, are noticed on walls or fixtures, you may be sure the mites are there. In that event, 
whether the house is to be whitewashed or not, give all the places where traces of mites are 
found a thorough swabbing, spraying, or drenching with water containing an insecticide that 
will kill them. I use Chloro-Naptholeum, about a half teacupful to a three gallon pail of 
water. Some use Sulpho-Napthol, some napthalene flakes dissolved in kerosene, some straight 
kerosene, some one of the numerous other liquid insecticides and disinfectants on the market. 
Whitewash alone will kill all the mites it reaches if a bit thick, but if thin enough to go into the 
cracks and crevices is not as effective as the other things mentioned. Whatever application is 
used, if the mites were bad go over the infested places again after an iuterval of three or fom- 
days, and again after another like interval, if, on examination, any mites are found. Two, or 
-dt most, three treatments at this season should settle the mite question until the return of warm 
weather next summer. . 

Renovating the Yards. 

The yards being, in this latitude, little used in winter, it is not as necessary to clean them up 
at this time as it is to clean the houses, but if opportunity can be found now to turn over soil 
that would require turning over in the spring anyway, it is worth while to do it. The contam- 
inated soil is thus 'turned under, and if there should happen to be much open weather iu the 
winter the fowls have cleaner ground to run over. 

If it is desired to grass a yard, now is a better time to prepare it than in the spring. Plough 
or spade and smooth the surface. Then just before it freezes up sow the seed. Keep the fowls 
oft* the land through the winter and until after the grass is well established in the spring. In 
this way you will get a better start of grass, and have the use of the land much sooner than if 
the seed is sown in the spring. 

Laying in Supplies for Winter. 

j)Kst.— lt, as I think by far the best way, the floor of the house is used as a dust bath, no 
special provision for material for the dust bath need be made; but if floors are of wood or 
cement, and dust has to be supplied specially, a good supply should be stored before the ground 
freezes. 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTS I' KEEPING. . 137 

Litter.— It leaves are to be used for litter, they should be stored as soon as possible. The 
quicker they are collected and put away after they fall, the tougher they are, and the longer 
tbey last on the scratching floor. If allowed to lie exposed to the weather for some time, they 
become much more brittle, and are quickly pulverized by the fowls. 

Farmers who have their own straw, of course have it stacked, and do not need to specially 
consider the supply for the hens. 

Those who cannot get leaves, and have to buy other scratching material, are likely to find 
thi> the most favorable time to get their supply, and the poultryman who has provided a place 
for the storage of such supply, finds now what a convenience it is. 

While I consider leaves the most satisfactory scratching material for those who can get a 
good supply with little trouble and expense, they are practically available only for those who 
can £et them nearby. Those who buy stuff for scratching litter will find oat straw and corn 
stalks the most satisfactory — the straw to be used without cutting, the staLks to be cut into 
about six inch lengths. Most kinds of hay make less satisfactory litter; fine hay packs too 
close, while coarse long hay is tough, and mats and tangles. 

Green Foods and Roots.— Cabbage is tne best of winter green foods, and the most con- 
venient to feed. A poultryman who does not grow his own cabbage should lay in a supply 
before winter, otherwise he is likely to have to pay too much for what he uses. Failing a 
supply of cabbage, good clover or alfalfa makes a substitute that insures the fowls will not 
suffer for lack of green food. 

Of root crops, beets are the best for poultry, and large mangel or sugar beets the most satis- 
factory. These are seldom grown for sale in the localities where they would be most in 
demand for poultry, and unless the poultryman grows them himself his supply is likely to be 
uncertain. 

Exhibition Fowls. 

For most exhibitors the show season is still several months away, yet it is not too early to 
begin to prepare birds for show if one intends to show. Indeed, if there is even a remote pos- 
sibility that one may want to show, or if he thinks it at all possible that there is in his stock a 
bird anyone else would buy to show, he should begin now to consider the matter, to provide 
against auything occurring to spoil an otherwise useful exhibition specimen, and by every 
means in his power to put such birds in good condition and keep them so. 

The almost universal fault of novices in exhibiting fowls is to put off the preparation of the 
specimen to be exhibited until the show at which it is to be exhibited Is close at hand. Then 
they find all sorts of things wrong. Birds so short in weight that it is hopeless to think of 
getting them up to weight; birds with scaly legs, with broken feathers, etc., and in many 
cases the owner has little idea how to remedy the trouble, and loses still more time in finding 
out. 

Now many of the most common faults discovered by the novice when trying to select birds to 
show are faults that in a specimen of any value should be remedied whether the specimen is to 
be exhibited or not. Scaly legs should not be tolerated in a yard, nor should such lack of condi- 
tion as exists when a fowl with a frame that should easily carry the weight required by the 
Standard is a pound or two short of that weight. 

By takiug the possible exhibition birds in hand npw, they may as a rule be quite easily fitted 
and well fitted. With two or three months to make weight they will come on fast enough on 
ordinary good feeding; scaly legs may be cleaned up gradually and be in fine condition long 
before the show ; broken or clipped feathers may be removed, and new ones have ample time to 
grow in their place. Besides this, special precautions may now be begun to avoid accidents to 
specimens that may be wanted to show. This is most necessary with the young males. They 
must not only be kept from injury by fighting, but a good specimen must not be kept where he 
will be bossed and cowed by another male even if the other is so much the boss that no special 
damage is done to comb or plumage. A male to show to advantage must show spirit, and 
though most of them have spirit enough when given a chance to develop and display it, a male 
that has been knocked about for months takes more than a few days or weeks to come out and 
show all that is in him. 



138 . FIBST LESSONS IN POULTBY KEEPING. 

There is still another reason why attention should be given to the selection and fitting of pos- 
sible show specimens. It leads the poultryman to study his stock much closer than he is likely 
to do if he gives no attention to exhibition quality and condition, and though he should not 
show a single specimen, all the time and thought he has given to this work will be found when 
he comes to mate his fowls for the next season, to have been well spent. The matter of fitting 
birds for exhibition will be treated more at length in the next lesson. 

The Poultryman Who Begins in the Fall. 

I am often asked what time of the year is best to begin poultry keeping. Judging by results 
of first efforts I cannot say that it makes a great deal of difference, but the fall has always 
seemed to me the best time to begin, because beginning at this season experiences come in their 
logical order, and something of the handling of adult stock is learned before hatching and rear- 
ing questions press for consideration. 

The poultryman beginning now, if on an old plant, has to take much the same steps in getting 
houses ready for winter as have already been mentioned. One building new houses, of course 
has no cleaning up or repairing to do, but unless buildings are already well advanced they must 
be pushed rapidly to have them ready for the stock before winter sets in. 

It is best not to buy stock until the buildings are practically ready, for fowls coming to a new 
place will not stand confinement in makeshift quarters as well as fowls reared on the premises 
do, being continued longer than advisable in the summer quarters. In fact the stock in summer 
quarters may come along as fast at present as if in winter quarters, but the point is to avoid 
moving them just as they are about to begin laying, and to guard against too much exposure, 
when, as is often the case, the coops are unsuitable for cold, stormy weather. 

With fowls brought to a new place, sickness may easily develop if conditions are specially 
unfavorable. Hence it is better to have the house all ready before a fowl is put into it, and not 
to get fowls until the house is ready for them. A great many do buy fowls and keep them con- 
fined in small coops perhaps for a mouth, while making the house ready. This gives the fowls 
a very poor start for the winter. 




FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING, 139 



LESSON XVI I I 



Exhibiting Fowls. 



Practical Value of Exhibiting to the Exhibitor. 

TOO many poultry keepers who keep poultry primarily for profit, or for poultry and 
eggs for the home table, regard the exhibiting of fowls and the breeding of fowl* 
for "fancy" points, as of no particular interest to "practical" people, and of no 
actual value to them. 

This is an error. Without conceding to " the fancy " that preeminence in the development 
of poultry interests which fanciers like to claim for it, everyone well informed in poultry 
matters must allow it credit for a great deal of the progress made and still making, and must 
also admit that a thorough knowledge, or even a fair knowledge of the characteristics of fowls 
and the principles of breeding for uniform results is rarely acquired by a poultryman who 
takes no interest In exhibition points and exhibits of many fowls. There are, of course, a 
great many so-called fanciers who kuow little of breeding, but the poultryman who takes no 
interest in "fancy" points, and does not breed at all for appearance — for beauty, either 
according to the general standards or according to some fixed ideas of his own, and still pro- 
duces good fowls, Is such a rarity that I have yet to meet the first one. Practical poultrymen 
who disregard "fancy" points, as a rule, breed absolutely without intelligent selection. A very 
large proportion of their stock is decidedly inferior, even when nominally their stock is thor- 
oughbred, and I have repeatedly seen in the yards of such breeders very poor birds, both male 
and female, in the breeding pens, and good ones not used for breeding, or good males mated 
with inferior females, and vice versa, with the result that only a very few good specimens were 
produced when there was good stock enough in the yards, if properly handled, to have given 
the poultryman two or three times as many good young birds as he got by his way of mismat- 
Ing, and many of them very much superior to any that he did produce. 

Xow through books and papers a poultry keeper who is sufficiently interested in a variety of 
fowls to " read up " on it, may learn a great deal without ever attending a show or making an 
exhibit; but he is sure to get a great many ideas that are wrong, to entirely overlook many 
points of importance, and fail much oftener than is necessary in assigning to various excellencie> 
;ind faults their proper values. 

Without exhibiting, a poultry keeper who will attend the shows and mingle with the fanciers 
there, will learn a great deal that self-taught he misses, and will learn more easily and quickly 
many of the things he would learn by himself; but it is the universal testimony of those who 
have gone through these several degrees of instruction in breeding and selecting for points that 
a personal experience In exhibiting when the exhibitor attends the show and gets the benefit of 
it is the best way to learn — so much better than any other way that there is no comparison. 

In such experiences the results of errors in judgment In breeding, selection, and preparation 
of fowls for exhibition become conspicuous while the corresponding correct condition or 
method may be clearly Illustrated by a more successful competitor. Then there is no place 
like the exhibition room for a breeder to learn to estimate the types aud characteristics which 



140 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

please him in his fowls at home at their true value, and without disregarding his individual 
tastes and prefereuces to learn to modify them to harmonize better with popular ideas. If one 
wishes to sell fine stock, or to gain a reputation for producing and having good stock he must 
keep his ideals somewhere near those of the rest of mankind interested in that kind of stock. 

Exhibitions of poultry are now so numerous and so well distributed that there are compara- 
tively few poultry keepers too far from any show to make an exhibit and look after it in 
person at least during a part of the time, and I would urge every reader of this lesson who 
keeps thoroughbred fowls to make it a point to exhibit at the most accessible show. If one 
begins early to make preparations to exhibit, and gets his birds in good physical condition they 
will have to be very poor indeed to discredit him. Where most novices "fall down" is in 
putting off selection and preparation of specimens to be exhibited until within a few days of 
the show. Then the birds go into the show in poor condition, and attract attention more by 
poor condition than by lack of merit. 

I have at such length urged readers, to exhibit not merely for reasons already given, but 
because so many breeders of thoroughbred fowls attach undue importance to the matter of 
winning at a show*, and feel that it is a disgrace to lose and therefore poor policy to show unless 
one has a reasonable expectation of winning. Then assuming that there will certainly be 
many good birds in their class, shown in good condition, they conclude the wiser course for 
them is to keep their birds at home. There is pleasure and generally credit in winning, but 
wherever competition is strong many must lose, and there is no disgrace in losing with a 
good exhibit to a rival with a better one. And in the show room merit gets the recognition of 
visiting fanciers, whether decorated with prizes or among the unplaced. I might say much 
more to urge reluctant breeders to show, butl hope that what has been said will prove enough, 
and in passing to the matters properly in this lesson will only say further that the reader fol- 
lowing these lessons who neglects to learn what he can in that way will get much less out of 
some of the more advanced lessons in the course than those who do. 

Something About the Poultry Shows. 

American poultry shows may be roughly divided into two general classes: — 
The poultry exhibit held in connection with an agricultural fair. 
The poultry show, proper, held by an association organized solely or primarily for 
that purpose. 

Though there is a rapidly increasing number of exceptions it is still true in a general way 
that the exhibits at fairs, where they usually occupy a subordinate position, bring out a decidedly 
inferior class of fowls, are often judged by incompetent persons, and do not begin to afford 
the opportunities for instruction and comparison of ideas that are found in even the smallest of 
the special poultry shows. 

For this reason readers who wish to exhibit for the sake of what they may learn by exhibit- 
ing are advised to exhibit at a winter show unless the poultry exhibit at the fair accessible to 
them is conducted in about the same way as a winter show, and is well patronized by fanciers 
in the territory from which it draws exhibits. A number of the more important fairs now run 
their poultry departments on such a basis, and some of them are as good or better than the 
winter shows in their vicinity. Occasionally there is enough local interest in the poultry 
exhibit at a small fair to secure suitable classification, the employment of a competent judge, 
and consideration of standard requirements in the placing of awards. At such a fair it is 
worth while to exhibit. But the general run of agricultural fairs, with primitive classification, 
lack of orderly arrangement, poor care of exhibits, and judgment according to no known stand- 
ards and by men of no qualifications for the work, do not afford the opportunities for acquiring 
knowledge which I have in mind; and while I would not dissuade anyone from exhibiting at 
such a fair to help the exhibit, I would not want a reader to limit himself to such experience 
in exhibiting and think he had followed my advice. 

Fowls Are Judged by the ** Standard.' 

At all well managed shows in the United States and Canada, fowls are judged by the "Amer- 
ican Standard of Perfection." This book is a collection of descriptions of varieties of fowls 
made to conform to a general model, compiled by the American Poultry Association, and is by 



FIRST LESSONS IX POULTRY KEEPING. HI 

custom and general consent the common " law " as to requirements for the varieties include.!. 
A copy of thi.s hook it is essential that every exhibitor and every breeder of thoroughbred fowls 
should have. Trying to breed and exhibit without the information in this book is like trying 
to du any kind of work requiring accuracy without a model, pattern or plan. Probably four- 
rifthsof the mistakes of new exhibitors are directly due to their failure to inform themselves 
about Standard requirements. 

True the Standard contains errors, and errors are sometimes made in applying it. For these 
an exhibitor is not responsible. The exhibitor is responsible for his own failures to conform to 
the Standard requirements that are plain and unmistakable, and he can only be sure that he 
makes no errors here by consulting the Standard on every point which may concern his exhibit. 

Applying the Standard in Selection of Specimens to Exhibit. 

To a novice who has never seen the application of the Standard demonstrated in judging, 
and had the opportunity to have the demonstrations which specially interested him further 
explained by the judge or other breeders, many of the descriptions in the Standard are vague 
and indefinite, but with these descriptions he need not concern himself at this stage. Leaving 
them for the present he should give his attention to the points that are clearly and unmistakably 
plain, for these are, as a rule, the points upon which judges most nearly agree in the applica- 
tion of the Standard, and under any competent j udge a specimen is almost certain to suffer if 
"off" in any of these points. In regard to them, knowing what the Standard says, even the 
novice may know what the judge will do about them. 

The best way to study the Standard description of a variety of fowls is to have one or more 
males and females of the variety under consideration cooped where they can be handled at will, 
and examine each section in the birds as the description of it is read in the book. The better 
the specimen the easier it is to understand the description. It is advisable for the prospective 
exhibitor to give himself several drills of this kind to familiarize himself with the Standard 
requirements before he undertakes to select specimens to exhibit. 

The descriptions state in a concise way, and almost without explanation, what is required in 
an ideal specimen. 

Having selected one or more specimens which seem to be his best according to the descrip- 
tion, the novice should next look up the disqualifications and examine carefully for them, for a 
bird that is plainly disqualified, though in every other way a fine specimen, and the disqualify- 
ing feature a very trivial one, is not only not given a prize, but in score card shows most judges 
quit scoring as soon as they find a disqualification, and the exhibitor is thus left without tbe 
record of the judge's complete estimate of the quality of the specimen, a distinct disappoint- 
ment ami misfortune when he shows to learn. 

On page 28 of " The Standard of Perfection" is given the list of general disqualifications — 
that is. of disqualifications which are the same for all or many breeds. Preceding the descrip- 
tion of each variety the additional special disqualifications for that variety are given. 

To illustrate the method of looking for disqualifications :* Suppose a Barred Plymouth Rock 
is under examination. Turning to the list of general disqualifications, the reader sees at once 
that the first three do not apply to Barred Plymouth Rocks. Coming to the fourth he finds it 
reads thus: — 

" In all breeds required to have unfeathered shanks, any featber or feathers on shanks, feet, 
or toes, or unmistakable indications of feathers having been plucked from the same." 

Now the novice whose idea of a feathered leg is of a leg profusely covered with feathers 
is apt to let that pass without a thought ; but he needs to give the point attention, and the legs 
and feet of the fowl a very careful examination, for tiny feathers are often found on the out- 

•The reader must not understand that what follows is the method pursued by a Judge, or an experienced 

exhibitor, or the method lie will himself pursue when familiar wlih the Standard and with his breed. The 
expert knowing the disqualifications without reference to the book, and having them all in mind, sees the 
more conspicuous ones at a glance. The breeder will look next for those most common in his stock. The 
judge using the score card generally begins witli the first section, and going right through the list, takes note 
of a disqualification when he reaches the section it is in. 



142 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

side of the shank of a fowl of a clean legged breed, and frequently they are so small that it 
takes a very careful examination to discover them. Sometimes there is only a stub of a 
quill, but that is as fatal as more. 

While examining for feathers he should also look for down between the toes of the fowl. 
By " down " is meant, as he will see by referring to the glossary of technical terms, a feather so 
minute that the quill is not visible to the naked eye. Formerly down disqualified the same as 
feathers, but now it is cut as a defect. 

The next general disqualification in regard to clipped wings also applies to Plymouth Rocks. 
If any of the specimens under consideration have had their wings clipped there is ample time 
now to pull out the clipped feathers and let new ones grow in their place. Even if not full 
grown at the time of the show the new feathers show the quality of the wing. The reason for 
disqualifying for clipped wings is that if they are allowed to pass with a cut it is possible in 
some varieties by clipping a wing to remove a disqualification. 

The next general disqualification which might apply is lopped comb. The glossary defines a 
lopped comb. Such combs are rarely found now on Plymouth Rocks. 

Next, " decidedly wry tails," that is, the tail carried to one side. This is quite a common 
defect, and is often unsuspected. A badly wry tailed bird it is no use to exhibit, but one that 
is only slightly wry, or only occasionally carried wry, an exhibitor will take chances with, for 
it is the practice of judges examining such a bird to try to get it to carry the tail straight, and 
if it will do so for only an instant the tail will pass. 

Next, " crooked backs." This is another fault often unsuspected by even exhibitors of some 
experience, but easily found by the judge who passes his hand over the back of the fowl. 

Next, " side sprig or sprigs on the comb of single comb varieties." This is a very common 
defect. 

Next, " decidedly squirrel tail," that is, the tail carried so high as to suggest the habit of the 
squirrel which carries its tail curving to the back. In short tailed breeds like Plymouth Rocks 
this defect is rarely conspicuous. 

Next, " blind in both eyes." A very rare defect. 

Next, " in four toed breeds, more or less than four toes on either foot." Not a very common 
defect. 

Next, "entire absence of main tail feathers." The feathers will not be absent unless they 
have been removed. They do sometimes get removed accidentally. The disqualification is to 
cover the case of the exhibitor who would remove them to hide a fault or disqualification. 

This completes the list of general disqualifications for faults which apply in this case. Turn- 
ing to Barred Plymouth Rocks, we find the following special disqualifications: — 

"Positive white in ear lobes; red in any part of the plumage; two or more solid black 
primaries, secondaries, or main tail feathers; shanks other than yellow with due allowance for 
fading with age, dark spots not to disqualify." 

The search for these disqualifications leads to an examination of the ear lobes for white, of 
the entire plumage for feathers with reddish spots on them, of the stiff feathers of wings and 
tail, and of the color of shanks and toes. 

In looking for these disqualifications the exhibitor will have given his birds a pretty careful 
examination, but he is not through yet. On pages 29 and 30 of "The Standard," is a list of 
cuts for the more common defects, by reference to which he will learn the common faults and 
rind .some for which a specimen may be punished so severely that as far as chances of winning 
are concerned it might as well be disqualified. 

We will not go through these here in detail, but refer only to the more important ones which 
apply in the case. These refer to irregular barring and to black feathers. Irregular barring is 
very common, and there are very few Barred Rocks which have not some black or partly black 
feathers in the plumage, which an inexperienced observer might not notice at all, but which 
the judge as a rule quickly discovers. It is the common practice of exhibitors to remove these 
feathers before showing the fowls. I will not attempt here to go into the ethics of the practice, 
but pass the matter with the remark that it is quite useless for one who leaves them to show in 
competition, and that as the Standard is worded now their removal is not "faking." 

For any other variety the prospective exhibitor should proceed in the same way, letting no 



FIRST LESSONS TN POULTRY KEEPING. 



143 



section connected with a disqualification pass without a careful examination, and paying special 
attention to the common defects mentioned for the variety he is considering. It takes time, and 
it is work ; but it is work that must be done if one would compete successfully in the exhibition 
room, and is quite as necessary, if though never exhibiting lie wishes to breed to standard 

requirements. Without this careful examination, and the thorough knowledge it gives both 
of the variety and of the individuals handled, a breeder will soon find his stock more dis- 
tinguished for its faults than tor its excellencies. 

Fitting Fowls for Exhibition. 
Having selected such specimens suitable for exhibition as are required, the next thing in 
order is to make or keep them tit for exhibition. Occasionally a specimen can be taken from 
i ne yard and sent to a show without any preliminary fitting or handling, but most birds need 
something done for them. 

Broken feathers should be removed that they may grow out again. Scaly legs should be 
cleaned up. Specimens short in weight or out of condition should have special care and feed- 
ing. For each variety, according to its necessities, provision must be made to get and keep the 
specimens in perfect coudition. Fowls with feathered legs must not be allowed to scratch and 
break the feathers on the feet. White fowls especially must be kept clean. Males must be 
kept where they cannot injure their combs, and the keeper must see that they roost where they 
will not break the tail feathers. Often roosts too. close to the wall completely ruin the feathers 
in the tails of the male birds. 

For all this general preliminary fitting fowls should be kept in their usual quarters, these, 
if necessary, being arranged to insure, as far as possible, freedom from liability to accidents 
that might spoil their condition. 

As the time when they are to be exhibited approaches, the fowls should be confined to the 
exhibition coops for a part of the time at least, that they may become accustomed to the coop. 
and should be handled frequently. The handling should be gentle and careful. If possible 
a novice fitting his fowls for exhibition should seek the personal advice of some more experi- 
enced exhibitor at every stage, and in no one point is it more important to be " shown " than in 
catching and handling the fowls. 

Many a novice finds that his way of handling fowls results in the case of wild, shy, and 
nervous fowls in many feathers being pulled out or broken, and with such experiences the 
birds do not rapidly become docile and easily handled. 
Unless the fowls are tame enough to be picked up readily almost anywhere they should be 

first caught from the roosts at night and put 
into small coops, preferably exhibition coops, 
something like that shown in the accompany- 
ing illustration. 

To catch and handle them from such a coop 
have the coop at such height that the bird in 
it is easily reached. Then to catch the bird 
reach in with the left hand and take it, with 
its head toward you, by the legs at the bock 
joints, your arm passing under the bird so 
that as it is withdrawn from the coop its 
weight rests on your forearm, and the palm 
of your hand being upward. Don't catch by 
the thighs, or the bird may struirule, ami in 
its struggles pull out feathers. If you take 
hold rU'ht with the hock joints in the hand, 
in../ Exhibition and Shipping Coop. while the fingers grasp the shanks, the bird 

Dimension — belglitr30 In. ; width 80 In.; depth 24 In. feels itself securely held, and is likely to sub- 
mit at once, while such struggles as it may make cannot damage the plumage. 

If unable to get the bird in that way, catch it with the right hand by the wing close up to the 
body, and drawing it toward you get the hold lirst described. Never attempt to hold the bird 
unices you have a secure hold that will not hurt it. 




144 FIB ST LESSONS IN POULTBY KEEPING. 

Most birds respond quickly to firm and kind handling, and learn to like it, but occasionally 
one is found that is very intractable. Unless such a specimen is of remarkable quality it is 
not worth while to fit or show it. 

If the birds have been given special care for some months to bring them naturally into show 
conditions, the work at this stage will not go much beyond training to make them gentle, to 
have them " coop broke," as it is called. But in the case of white fowls it is desirable that they 
should be washed, and if birds are to show to advautage with well washed birds they also must 
be well washed. The novice who leaves washing until just before the show is very likely to 
make a mess of it. The better way is to begin to practice, not necessarily on the birds to be 
exhibited, (any white fowl will do), long before the show, and be familiar with and somewhat 
skillful in the process before you try it in the final preparation of an exhibition specimen. 
Take a bright warm day in the fall, when the bird can be dried in the sun, for the first attempt, 
and when the general warm atmosphere makes it less likely that the washed bird will catch 
cold in being thoroughly dried off. 

Suggestions From Experts. 

Supplementing these general instructions, I quote from three of the best articles on preparing 
fowls for exhibition that have been published in this paper. 



Mr. A. C. Smith, in an article on preparing birds for exhibition, says: — 

" As it is impossible in this climate to allow birds to run in the fields during those months 
when shows are mostly beld, we must imitate those conditions, and supply what nature lur- 
nishes when they are at range in some model pasture. While many poultrymen supply some 
of these things, there are few who realize the importance of fresh air and exercise. These are 
prime essentials to good health, and they are about all that is required to make a good coat, 
except wholesome food. To neglect giving the birds plenty of exercise, or even forcing them 
to exercise if necessary, is to abandon our greatest help in conditioning fowls. Fresh air is a 
subject that has been discussed but little if at all by the poultry press in connection with the 
condition of exhibition fowls. The necessity of a good supply of this abundant and inexpen- 
sive article is most emphatically urged upon all poultry keepers. It will affect the coat both as 
to hardness of feather and lustre. The reader has but to experiment for a few days with a 
well ventilated hen house and a poorly ventilated one to see the effect upon the fowls. Keep 
the windows closed, or nearly closed, both day and night, and watch your birds as to hardness 
of feather, lustre, and color of head parts, and then try a little judicious ventilation, and note 
the difference in the tone and appearance of your birds. Such an experiment may be confined 
to your own house instead of being carried to the poultry house. Close your sleeping room 
up tight all night, and your own feelings in the morning will demonstrate the necessity of a 
supply of pure air for the fowls at all times. 

" Green food is another essential which birds crave, and it should be supplied in good quan- 
tity. This leads us to the subject of feeding fowls that are being prepared for exhibition. 
All foods should be sweet and wholesome. Fowls are not swine, and will not thrive upon the 
care usually accorded that much abused race of animals. Good judgment must be used as to 
the amount of food. Too much food means too much flesh, and fowls too lazy to take the 
needed amount of exercise. 

" To get the required amount of exercise in confined quarters, a litter of leaves, coarse hay, 
or rye straw should be placed upon the ground to the depth of four or five inches. A few oats 
should be scattered in this as soon as the birds are fairly off the roost in the morning, if it is 
during the short days of winter. Then as soon as the mash can be prepared the birds should 
receive about two heaping teaspoonfuls each. This small quantity warms them up and sets the 
machinery of their digestive organs to work, but Is not enough to destroy their appetite for 
more. This mash should be made of ground oats and corn meal, or corn meal, flour middlings, 
and bran, or acme feed. The proportions should be governed by the quality of the goods. A 
mash that is so light in substance that it does not cling together is not rich enough; neither is a 
tough, dough mass what Is desired. This mash should be seasoned lightly with salt, but no 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 145 

Bpicee whatever should l>e used, as they tend to intensify the color of the head parts for n mm 
only, and to diminish it in proportion thereafter. It is also advisable to use a small quantity of 
hone meal in this mash every morning, and twice a week a little refined flsb meal, ,<a\ one- 
twelfth or so. This Is h forcing food, and but little should he employed unless it, Is desire 
bring females toward a laying state. Clover meal should he used once or twice a week in thir 
morning mash. It is preferable to cut clover, as the latter is too bulky in the crop, and often 
clogs the passage to the digestive organs. The fowls should be kept scratching until noon, 
when the green food should be fed. Everyone has his preference; the writer prefers cabbages, 
as they are the greenest and tenderest thing to be procured in the winter months. Green food 
can be placed before them in two ways — it may be chopped, and a certain amount fed every 
day, or it may be placed before the fowls in an unlimited supply. If it is furnished without 
restriction, it must be kept constantly before the fowls, otherwise they are liable to eat too- 
much when a new allowance is supplied. Between three and four o'clock the fowls should be 
given the heartiest meal of the day. It should consist of either wheat or barley, and should 
be well covered with litter. The exact time that it should be given depends upon the length of 
the clay. The object is to give the fowls an hour or an hour and a half of exercise before 
they go to roost. Considerable can be accomplished by a selection of grains. If the birds are 
too fleshy, more barley and less, wheat should be used for the evening feed. If the weather is: 
very cold, and the birds in a normal state of flesh, a small handful of corn may be allowed each 
one just before it jumps upon the perch for the night. With fowls that are poor in flesh it is 
well to \\<e more wheat and but little oats and barley for a scratching feed. Corn should be 
fed for the evening feed to birds in this condition. 

"Young birds of the heavier breeds which are somewhat under weight should not be forced to 
over-exerci>e, (in such cases, increase of weight is the main point) ; but a moderate amount of 
exercise will prove advantageous in these cases, also. A great variety of food should be sought 
for such birds. The mash should have a greater proportion of corn meal, and a mixture of 
wheat and barley with a small proportion of oats shoukf be used during the day to make the 
birds exercise. Broken sweet crackers of all sorts may be used in connection with corn meal 
and bran as a soft food to good advantage. In cold weather sunflower seeds and buckwheat in. 
small amounts are good agents in securing the desired object. The last two are also very instru- 
mental in procuring that lustre so desired by the best exhibitors. Beef tallow is very good to 
give a lustre to the coat. Too much is not beneficial to the general health of the bird, but a 
piece one-half the size of an English walnut every second day will answer the purpose and 
prove a great treat to the birds. 

" The quarters for the birds during this preparation should be all that quarters for any fowls 
should be— dry, sunny, well ventilated, but free from drafts. It would be well to clean them a 
little oftener than usual. No chance should present itself for the birds to soil their plumage, as 
the natural has more life than the washed plumage. To that end the droppings should be 
removed a little oftener than usual, and no soft or green foods left where the plumage of the 
birds can come in contact with them. 

"It is hardly necessary to say that these birds must be kept absolutely free from lice, and Id 
particular cases like these nothing in my opinion answers as well as a thorough dusting once a 
week with lice powder. 

"The males and females should for obvious reasons be conditioned in separate compart- 
ments, if not in separate houses. The males usually do better with one to three females, of 
course only those which are of no consequence for exhibition purposes. The females may be 
conditioned together to the number of six or eight, but when more than that number are placed 
in the same pen all do not seem to thrive. 

"Grooming is sometimes resorted to in order to <^ive the bird a sleek appearance; one which 
has had plenty of fresh air ami exerci>e seldom requires much, however. The best impli merit.- 
for such work are the bunds or an old silk handkerchief. The feathers should be rubbed very 
lightly as they show the effects of the least wear very quickly. 

"The mention of any tonics, washes, drugs, and what may be termed 'brilliantinee,' has been 
carefully avoided, as the course here described will do all that those things will do, and all that 
Is necessary in forty-nine cases out of fifty. Nothing is absolutely required except the every 



IU FIB ST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

day stock of the cook room, and a quick eye for the condition of the birds and the houses, to 
enable you to set up as finely conditioned a string of birds as any of your contemporaries." 

How to Wash a Fowl. 

Mr. E. Wyatt, in an article on preparing fowls for exhibition, gives the following detailed 
instructions for washing fowls : 

"Al 1 white birds need to be washed before being seut to the show, and this should be done 
two or three days before "sent on their journey. To wash a bird is a difficult thing, and may 
rightly be called an' art. If it cannot be done right, it had better not be done at all, for the birds 
will look ten times better by not being touched than if they were washed and a bad job made 'of 
them. Those breeding white birds have often noticed when passing through a show, many 
w T bite birds looking smoky in color, the feathers sticky, not sitting right; in fact, looking very 
unnatural indeed. The matter was that they had been washed, and that by an inexperienced 
hand, whose birds would have looked better if they had never been washed at all. And so it 
goes, if it cannot be done right it had better be left alone. 

••The first thing necessary is to prepare a kitchen for the work, and start a good brisk fire in 
a wood stove Remove all the unnecessary furniture; warm plenty of clean rain water, and 
set three good sized tubs in position around and close to the stove. One needs a good assistant, 
and no better can be found than a good patient woman. One must have an assistant, for many 
things will need tending to that can't be done by one person. First, have all the birds ready, so 
that no inconvenience will be caused by having to go to the hen houses for the specimens ju»t 
when they are wanted. After having removed all the dirt on the feet, if there be any, a good 
fanning is necessary so as to get all the dust out of the feathers that is possible to do so before 
applying the water. 

"Tub No. 1 should be filled half full of water, lukewarm, as near blood heat as possible, or a 
little warmer will not hurt. Put the hjrd gently into the water, holding it there either by the 
feet or by the sides of the body, depending on its disposition. If the bird has never been 
washed before, it will not know what to make of it at first. It may want to fly, or many other 
things. 

" Just then, the operator will have to exercise that highest of all virtues— patience. Take it 
easy for awhile; hold the bird down in the water, partly immersed, and in a while begin apply- 
ing water with a good sized sponge. With this rub the feathers with the web as they la\ ; 
never rub against the lay of the feathers. The best way to hold a bird in the water is, when 
seated on a chair close to the tub, to face the birds towards you, and wash away from you. 
You will find it a very difficult job to get the feathers wet. After applying water with the 
sponge for a while, then begin using the soap. Castile or Ivory soap is good, but I always 
use Colgate's shaving soap on my White Cochins, and White Cochins are the hardest breed of 
all to wash on account of the great length and fluffiness of their feathers. With free use of 
water and soap get the feathers all over — neck, breast, back, cushion, wing, tail, thighs — as 
wet and soapy as you can. Use the sponge freely, and wet and wash the feathers right to the 
skin until you get all that dry and fluffy appearance out of them. Then they are properly 
wet. 

" Continue rubbing with the sponge, and applying the soap, turning the feathers over and 
over, and getting at the entire surface of every feather if you can. By so doing, you will get 
all the dirt out of the feathers, and the next step is to get out the soap. 

" Tub No. 2 should be in waiting, half full of clean lukewarm water, as before. Here the 
bird Is put, as in tub No. 1, aud washed thoroughly, so as to get out all the soap. After 
ruUbing with sponge, and using clean water freely, take a dipper and keep pouring the water 
out of the tub over the bird, letting it fall with a little force from about a foot above the bird. 
This will part the feathers and cleanse them from the soap. Do this all over the bird. If you 
do it right, one tub of this kind of work will be enough. 

" Tub No. 3 should also be handy, and in It some cold water with just as much bluing as 
the good wife uses for bluing the white clothes. Into this the bird is put as before, and 
ringed with the cold bluing water. The water should be just cold enough to be chilly. The 
reason for this cold shower bath is for the same purpose that men take them after taking a 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 117 

plunge In a warm hath— it prevents eatchlng cold. After going through these three operations 
the bird is ready for drying, which Is not by any means the least important part of the work. 

" After taking the bird from tub No. ;>, put the bird on a board placed ou top of the tub, 
and by means of the bands squeeze all the water out of Its feathers you possibly can. 
Remove the bird then to the top of a box, or a chair, placed very close to a good brisk lire, 
and begin toweling it with warm dry towels, so as to absorb all the moisture out of the feathers 
that j ou can. 

" Now the bird is ready for drying. Keep it before a brisk wood lire, but not so near as to 
curi the feathers, or you will spoil them so that they cannot be remedied. With a strong palm 
fan let the assistant bcu r in the drying, lir>t fanning one side and then the other. This part 
of the work is gone on with until the bird is thoroughly dried. The fire needs to be brisk, 
the bird kept turned around, and the fan going all the time, and it is surprising how soon the 
u.tthers will dry ami open up so nice and fluffy. The fluff, the back, and under the wings 
will be longest in drying. Holding a wing up with one hand, and fanning with the other, 
will soon make wonderful changes. If the work has been successful thus far, little difficulty 
will be experienced in getting the birds dry and putting on the finishing touches. 

"And now we will suppose the bird is nice and dry, and that the feathers are free from 
soap. It is a difficult job to get the feathers wet and soapy, and a difficult one to get the soap 
out again. All it requires to accomplish both is time and patience, and good clean warm 
water. But if, on drying, it has been found that the feathers are sticky and do not open 
nicely, which will not be the case if the work has been done right in first place, put in order 
again another fresh lot of clean warm rainwater, *and rinse over again as before, and proceed 
with the bleaching ami drying again.*' 

What to Do On the Way, at the Show, and Home Again. 

On these three points Mr. Smith, generally reputed one of the best fitters and handlers of 
•exhibition fowls in the country, gave our readers a few years ago the following advice: — 

" Mistakes which seriously handicap a bird are often made in the mode of shipping to a 
show. Most anything will do for a shipping coop, for some people. The most common mis- 
take is shipping male birds In coops that are not high enough, as the bird will take a 
-tretch now and then, and if he runs across anything new is liable to jump, he will strike his 
<-omb against the top of the coop, and when this sort of exercise is practiced for a few 
miuutes that ornamental fixture becomes anything but ornamental. The coops that some 
leading breeders and exhibitors ship in have solid instead of slat tops, which are sure to injure 
any but the firmest and smallest of single combs. 

" Experience has shown the writer that single comb males of the American class should have 
a coop 28 to 30 in. high, and not less than IT x 18 in. on the floor. Males of the rose comb 
varieties may be shipped in coops 4 to 6 in. lower. For males of the Mediterranean class, 
nothing short of 22 to 24 in. in height should be used, and for some birds the coops should be 
even higher. But one bird should be shipped in a coop or compartment, no matter how long 
they have run together, or how friendly they may seem. The confinement in narrow quarters 
never improves, and often destroys the good feeling that has heretofore existed between them. 

"The larger and more successful exhibitors, as a rule, accompany their birds, or send an 
attendant to care for them whenever they exhibit. Some of these exhibitors go so far as to 
Saj that they will never show a single bird unless accompanied by a competent handler. 
Tlio.»e who are acquaiHted with the many duties and cares of the average show official can 
readily understand that if our birds are to get extra care we must supply it. The wisdom of 
accompanying bird- or sending an attendant is born of experience. 

"Your duties do not cease when your birds leave your yards, and begin again when they 
arrive at the exhibition hall. It is most necessary to have a watchful eye upon the coops and 
birds when in transit. Expressmen are much more likely to keep the coops right side up when 
under the eye of the owner, or one supposed to be the owner, and the messenger less liable to 
bury the coop under baggage when you occasionally peep into the express car. 

•• As soon as the birds arrive at the show room they should be moved to some comfortable 
place, and the show cages made ready for their reception, if this has not already been done. 



]48 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPTNV. 

The cautious exhibitor will wash all drinking and feeding cups in as hot water as he cam 
procure. This is quite necessary to prevent roup, canker, and other contagious diseases, unless 
you furnish your own cups, a thing it is not always convenient to do. Plenty of sawdust 
should be placed in the bottom, as no chicken or fowl will stand in form upon a substance too 
hard to catch the nails. Then if your birds are white the cage should be rubbed free from 
dust and dirt. It is better to fill the drinking and feeding dishes before the birds are placed in 
the cages, as they are much disturbed by the change, and it is well not to trouble them any 
more than necessary until they become accustomed to the surroundings. 

" It is to be supposed that the birds have been in preparation for the show for some time, 
that they are free from vermin ; that the plumage is clean, as well as head, legs, etc. If the legs 
and feet have not been cleaned, they may be now by applying castile soapsuds with a nail or 
tooth brush. These suds should be rinsed off, and the legs rubbed dry with a soft rag. To^ 
bring the color of the legs out, a small quantity of cotton seed oil should be thoroughly rubbed 
in. The rubbing should be thorough, as the oil will hold all the dust and dirt that strikes it.. 
The dirt that often collects under the scale may be easily removed after the washing by using a. 
common wooden toethpick. 

" Lotions are often applied to the face, comb, and wattles, to intensify the color. If the bird 
is in the pink of condition it will scarcely be necessary to more than wash these parts with a 
sponge dampened with tepid water. The effect of most of the washes used to brighten the head 
parts depends upon the quantity of alcohol contained. Many use alcohol diluted with water; 
vinegar is often used. The effect of this liquor is due to the acetic acid, which is part of its 
composition. Acids and alcohols brighten the color only for a short time — a few hours at the 
most. After the action the reaction sets in, and these parts become paler instead of brighter. 
These agents have but the effect of making the bird appear in perfect condition for a very short 
time. After that they appear to less advantage than if they had been left to do their own color- 
ing. It may be said without fear of contradiction that the application of these sharp acids and 
hot lotions is not worth the trouble. It is my honest belief that their application has not 
changed an award or misled an intelligent judge in the last ten years. About the best thing as 
well as the simplest that can be used for this purpose is a very small quantity of vaseline well 
rubbed Into the place of application. This will intensify the color, especially in a room of a. 
temperature as high as that which human beings usually inhabit. 

" The food furnished at the average poultry show is limited to hard grains of one or two* 
kinds. This is not sufficient variety, even for three or four days. It is highly important to* 
supply the bird with grit and oyster shells, as well as an allowance of green foods. It is a good 
plan to furnish the regular warm morning mash. This will involve but little labor if all it& 
ingredients are mixed dry, put in a bag, and taken with y»u. It should be the attendant's duty 
to clean the coops in part twice a day at least, and put in a fresh supply of sawdust occasionally. 

"Of all the evils of the show room drafts work the greatest harm. In fighting them, a piece 
of brown paper, or several folds of a newspaper, will be found very effective. Drafts come 
from all directions, but those that come through a hole or crack in the bottom of the coop are 
the most apt to escape notice. These cause many colds. They may be prevented by tacking a 
piece of pasteboard over the opening. 

"In some show halls the temperature is allowed to fall many degrees at night. A change in 
temperature of twenty to thirty degrees in a few hours does not agree with fowls as a rule. It 
is advisable in such cases to cover the top and front of the coop at night, after the room becomes, 
somewhat cooler than it has been during the day, always having, of course, some ventilation. 
Such a proceeding is also advisable when the hall is left lighted during the night, as the birds- 
rest better, and appear fresher if the coops are darkened during the night. 

"Getting the fowls home is fully as important as getting them to the show. As they have 
been so closely confined for several days, they are less vigorous than when taken out of the 
yards, and consequently more liable to disease. The care should not slacken for one minute 
until the birds have been well established in their regular quarters for several days, and it 
becomes certain whether or not they are the worse for their experience." 



F1UST LESSOXS IX POULTliY KEEPING. H ( J 



LESSON XIX. 



The Fattening of Poultry, 



WHAT is f;it? My dictionary describes it, and tells me that it is a part of animal 
tissue, and is also found iu plants. From advocates of " scientific" feeding, more 
may be learned about it. They discuss it as a food element and as a body con- 
stituent, and though we may not follow them through all their ideas, let us give 
them credit for having made the people of their generation more familiar with the qualities of 
food and the requirements of the animal organism. 

Fat in the organism is an extremely concentrated reserve supply of nourishment stored for 
emergencies, and sometimes, also, by its disposition under the skin, made to serve as a protec- 
tion from cold. Indeed, when stored in large quantities the bulk of it is usually deposited next 
the skin, though a good deal is distributed through the muscular tissues, aud sometimes large 
quantities accumulate about the internal organs. Nature's problem in the disposition of the fat 
on a person, animal, or fowl is very like that of a man who has to find place for a store of 
materials in a workshop in which practically all the available room is required for the work 
carried on and materials actually being used. But a small quantity of fat can be stored in the 
body without detriment to it, or interference with its functions. Wherever placed, it is a dead 
weight to be carried — more or less of a burden. An excessive accumulation of fat between 
the muscular tissues and about the joints and the juncture of sinews with the bones impedes 
the action of the limbs. Large deposits of fat about the internal organs seriously Interferes 
with their functions. Again, the sense of fullness occasioned by such a never failing reserve 

apt to dull the appetite, and the tendency to inactivity combines with this to weaken the 
digestive organs and so gradually destroy the vitality and vigor of the organism. 

From the point of view of the poultry breeder and egg farmer, fat, in excess of the small 
reserve necessary to offset irregularities in feeding, production, and temperature, is a bad thing. 

From the point of view of the poultryman about to sell, and of buyers of table poultry, fat — 
And a great deal of it — is desirable. 

The fowl in good breeding or laying condition is not, as a rule, iu good table condition. 
The chicken, as it runs on the farm or in the yard, lacks the plumpness and smoothness of a 
fatted chicken. The lean fowl or chicken, though tender in flesh, is dry meated and not espe- 
cially appetizing. When hard meated it is quite undesirable. So for table purposes poultry 
should be somewhat fat. How fat, is a question for individual tastes, or market demands, to 
determine. 

In some foreign countries, notably in France and Belgium, there is some market demand for 
excessively fat fowls, and the process of fattening fowls for this demand is something of an art, 
requiring considerable skill, good judgment, and first of all, fowls constitutionally well adapted 
to it. In England, the taste for fat poultry is less pronounced, and a less degree of fattening 
suffices, but still a good deal of attention is given the art of fattening. In this country very 
fat fowls are not wanted to any marked extent. In this respect we are behind or not, accord- 



150 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

ing to the point of view. What our markets require for first class poultry is poultry fat 
enough to cook well in its own fat, but not so fat that much of the fat still remains after the 
cooking. Comparatively few people here have any taste for an overfat fowl. To most people 
poultry fat, except in small quantities,, is nauseating, and, of course, the internal fat removed 
when the fowl is drawn is of no special advantage to the consumer. What the consumer 
wants is a suitable amount of fat, properly distributed next the skin and through the tissues, 
«o that in cooking, its oil penetrates to every part of the meat, but yet the fat is not anywhere 
in such quantities that it remains after the cooking, and gives its taste to the meat. To accom* 
plish this, a fowl, especially for a roasting fowl, must be quite fat — much fatter than our aver- 
age good poultry. Hence we may say that there is little danger of making young poultry over- 
fat by any ordinary means unless the process of fattening is protracted far beyond what is 
necessary. With old fowls it is different; many of those seen in our markets are excessively 
fat, and the fat not at all well distributed, but the greater part of it waste — fat which adds to* 
the weight of the fowl without increasing the quantity of edible meat, or improving its quality- 
From what has been said I think it will be clear that fat in market poultry is valuable chiefly 
as an accessory quality. The, fat itself, except as it occurs in small quantities in the muscular 
tissues, is eaten by comparatively few people, but people want their poultry quite fat because 
the lean meat of the fat fowl is, other things being equal, superior to the lean meat of a lean 
fowl. There is another reason for this besides the effect of fat in the cooking, which has 
already been referred to. The lean fowl is lean because of insufficient nourishment, or because 
its activity hardens the muscles and prevents the accumulation of fat. After maturity the fat 
fowl may begin to fatten because of a constitutional tendency that way, even on a very moder- 
ate amount of nourishment, (though while growing, few will fatten unless conditions are 
especially favorable), but the subsequent accumulation of fat depends on whether the natural 
tendency to fatten is aided or discouraged by the poultry keeper. 

The stock that is to be kept for laying and breeding purposes should be allowed to accumu- 
late but little fat. Stock that is to be marketed the grower generally wants to have ready for 
sale at the most convenient or most favorable time. If he has stock all of the same breeding, 
and well bred, he is likely to find it much the same all through. If a part of the chickens quit 
growing early and begin to fatten, it is likely that most of the stock will do so. Generally such 
stock is best fattened and disposed of at once, though sometimes it pays to hold it for a special 
market and high prices, for, as a rule, stock that begins to fatten young under ordinary con- 
ditions and diet does not grow much more frame or muscle. It is the fowls that grow the 
frames first, then round them out with muscle, and then begin to lay on fat that make the 
largest and finest poultry at maturity. Such stock a grower often wants to fatten a little in 
advance of its natural tendency, and to accomplish this he resorts to various artificial means,, 
some very simple, others more difficult. 

Beginners generally, and a surprisingly large number of poultry keepers of some experience 
overrate the importance of special food in fattening, and attach too little. importance to con- 
ditions and inherited tendencies. The latter question in particular is almost neglected, and in 
consequence in this country poultry grown especially for the table is too apt to come from stock 
which is considered suitable for producing market poultry only because it is plainly not suitable 
for anything else. Asa result of the general use of many birds not at all satisfactory from a 
market poultry standpoint, far too large a proportion of our poultry can never be fattened 
properly, no matter what foods are used, and not a little of it cannot be fattened profitably,, 
the process requiring too long a time, too much food, and too many individuals falling out by 
the way because the digestive organs will not stand the heavy feeding and close confinement 
necessary to make them lay on fat. 

To fatten quickly, easily, and profitably a fowl or chicken must first of all be plump. A 
chicken that is plump at any age can generally be fattened at any age. A chicken that has a 
'• lanky" period during its growth it is almost impossible to fatten during that period. The 
best illustration of this is seen in the Asiatics, especially the Light Brahma. Under three 
months of age they may be fattened quite readily. From three to six or seven months they 
tend to put everything given them into frame, bone, and muscle, and cannot be fattened, even 
in close confinement in such a short period as suffices after the frame is developed. Shut 



FIB8T LESSONS IN POULTBY KEEPING. 151 

(hem up close and feed heavily at this period and they grow weedily and often become ill 
formed. Iiynany other breed*, and especially in those having Asiatic blood in their make up, 
the same condition obtains with regard to many stocks, and sometimes is conspicuous in u part 
of a flock, and as notably absent in the remainder. 



In fattening poultry, therefore, we have to consider first the chickens, fowls, or other 
poultry to be fattened, whether they fatten readily or with difficulty. 

Next we must consider the season, the time of year and the prevailing conditions. Just as 
all hens tend to lay iu the spring, nature tends to make all fowls lay up a supply of fat in antici- 
pation of cold weather with its sometimes heavy drains on the capacity of the digestive organs 
to meet all physical requirements. Often fowls which could not be fattened at any other time 
will fatten then. 

But, as those who will closely follow current comments on market conditions will discover 
within a very short cycle of years, the weather in fall has much to do with the fattening of the 
poultry crop of the country. If the general mean temperature is high poultry does not fatten 
so readily. If the weather is seasonable, with crisp, cool nights the fowls of all kinds eat more 
heartily of the heating, fattening foods given them and take on fat much more rapidly. The 
general crop is, to be sure, fattened by somewhat primitive methods, but the conditions affect- 
ing it also have their influence on the work of those who try more direct and efficient methods, 
at this and at all seasons. In a very hot summer it is frequently impossible for growers to get 
chickeus as fat as they waut them and as is usual. 

The conditions under which poultry is kept while fattening are of at least as much importance 
as the food. To facilitate fattening their activities must be kept as low as possible. They must 
be coufined in small yards, iu pens indoors, or in fattening coops, according to the system used. 

The food used is generally a food containing starches and fats in larger proportion than is 
advisable when the question of maintaining condition with a view to future usefulness has to be 
considered. In fattening the digestive organs by heavy feeding and lack of general exercise 
for the fowl are weakened. It rests with the judgment of the operator to see that they are not 
weakened to the danger point before the fattening process is finished, for in that event he may 
lose all the profit on the operation, even if he saves the stock. 

J* 

The Simplest Method of Fattening. 

The soft roaster growers of what is known as the " South Shore" section iu Massachusetts, 
who produce the finest poultry brought to the Boston market, continue the same system of 
feeding from the time their chickens leave the brooders until they are sold to be. dressed and 
marketed immediately. Their bill of fare is of the simplest, and the principle upon which their 
system Is based of the soundest. 

(racked corn, beef scrap and water are always before their chickens. Green food is supplied 
nvenient. Cabbages are used quite freely when grown at home, but I do not think are 
purchased very extensively. Green rye, sown in the fall on the land about the houses is avail- 
able whenever the ground is bare, and with many growers this is the main reliance for green 
food. Their chickens are grown on this diet, and fatten on it as they reach the fattening period 
of their lives. As they are especially wanted for early summer there is rarely occasion to 
hasten fattening. Indeed, these chickens are quite as likely to come on a little faster than the 
grower wants them to, and so be ready for market rather in advance of the period of best 
prices. "While they may be held for a short time after they are well fatted, this is rarely done, 
for the overfat chicken is not desired, and after the chicken is once well fatted the risk of dis- 
ease in fat fowls, intensified by the fact that all through life the roasting chicken has been 
handled with a view to the quality of the meat rather than to strength and vigor, makes it 
inadvisable to hold it long. 

The principle upon which these South Shore soft roaster grower> work is this: 

To make the best growth and remain soft meated the chicken must be quiet and 
contented, not disposed to forage or roam about much, but still inclined to take 



152 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

exercise enough to keep it in healthy condition through its short life. They give it 
abundance of food. The food is always before it. They give it opportunity to go 
quite a distance, and trust to the abundance of food to restrain its inclination to 
wander, while the opportunity to move about is relied upon to induce it to take exer- 
cise enough to keep it from going out of condition before it is marketed. 
This principle, rule, or method, whichever we call it, is perhaps no better in results in 
poultry than some of the more elaborate ones, but it certainly produces a fine article at the 
minimum cost for food and attendance. It should be noted that it is the object of these 
growers to produce chickens in which the meat has always been soft. Their method does not 
contemplate improving the quality of a hard meated fowl by softening hard muscles, and inter- 
spersing them with fat. With them the fattening is strictly a finishing process intended to be 
warded only as far as necessary to furnish the fat to cook the meat on the fowl. 

The Next Step Toward Special Fattening. 

The soft roaster growers, as a rule, intend all their chickens, cockerels, (caponized), and 
pullets alike for market. Their system, as generally operated, does not produce the largest 
possible chicken from the possibilities with which they start. There is no need that it should, 
for the method they use gives them chickens large enough for the general demand. But, when 
a poultryman is growing stock in which the different sexes, or birds of different quality are' to 
be devoted to different purposes, this method does not apply so well. The object, then, is to 
build up good strong, vigorous, and usually, too, large bodies; and this must apply to all the 
stock, for not until mature, or nearly so, can the selection of individuals for the different pur- 
poses be made. Chickens handled for this purpose for many months would not readily adapt 
themselves to the method of heavy feeding and reduced activity. They would come to it in 
time with the inducements it offers them, but when a poultryman has reached the point of 
culling out the chickens that are to go to market, he usually wants to fit them for market, and 
dispose of them as quickly as possible. To accomplish this he confines them somewhat closely, 
and feeds more heavily and more fattening foods. 

In the case of partly grown chickens of the small and medium sized breeds, this kind of 
forcing is likely to give temporarily very rapid growth with a slight accumulation of fat. I 
used to take Plymouth Rock, Wyandotte, and Buff Leghorn chicks, weighing a pound to a 
pound and a quarter each, confine them in lots of about forty, in pens 8 ft. square, with yards 
containing about 300 sq. ft., and feed heavily on corn cake, wheat, and cracked corn, and put 
eight ounces of weight on each of them in a week. This was my system of handling chicks to 
dress for broilers. If my orders for broilers left any to grow a little too large for that purpose 
they were kept under about the same conditions — perhaps a little more exercise and more 
■variety of food for a few weeks, then again given a week of finishing to fit them for " frys," 
and at this second fattening they generally put on much more fat. 

The method I use at present is more particularly adapted to older fowls, though it slightly 
improves the condition of those taken from the yard to be killed for our own table at a stage at 
which they do not readily fatten. 

When cockerels are well grown, I plan to have a few fattening all the time until all destined 
for the table have been used. They are simply shut in a small pen or coop, fed mash the same 
as the rest of the stock once a day, and for the rest have cracked corn and water before them 
Jill the time. On this treatment most of them will fatten as fast as we care to have them, in 
from one to two weeks, the average being about ten days. If it should happen that any are 
not killed within two weeks we are quite sure of finding them overfat. 

These chickens are full fed and in good condition before being shut up. I think they will 
run a little harder meated than the soft roasters, as grown by the South Shore method, but 
there are many specimens just as soft, and the average is very much better than that of 
ordinary good table poultry. 

Other Simple methods. 

When a very rapid increase of fat is desired, and especially when the chickens to be fattened 
are a little lacking in condition, the fattening process may be hastened in various ways. 



FISST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 153 

When only :i Bmall number of chickens are being handled, a very rapid fattening may be 
made by feeding on a baked johnny cake of corn meal, with occasionally some beef scrap con- 
taining much fat or pork cracklings. For a large number of chickens the preparation of 
johnny eake is too troublesome. Feeding entirely on mash of corn meal and beef scraps may 
work satisfactorily on chickens that can stand it, but heavy mash feeding exclusively is not to 
be recommended to a novice. The part grain diet is safer. 

Fattening on ground dry feed mixtures is probably not to be recommended for quick work 
with chickens that have been fed by another system, for if they do not take readily to it valu- 
able time is lost. It should be noted in the instructions already given that the fattening process 
is simply an extension of the regular system of feeding to which the stock is accustomed. So 
In dry feeding the feeder trusts in part to confining the chickens more closely and in part to a 
little more fattening food of the same kind he has been using and fed much the same way to 
bring about the conditions he seeks. Mr. Park used to fatten his cockerels on a mixture of 
equal parts corn, oats, and barley, ground very tine and fed dry in hoppers, the cockerels mean- 
time being confined to a grass run and liberally supplied with beef scrap, water, and, some- 
times, milk. I presume they would fatten as rapidly by this plan as by mine, but cannot say 
definitely. 

About Machine Fattening. 

Ofnhis system of fattening I do not propose to treat at this stage of these lessons. Later on 
it will be taken up and considered in a special lesson. 

Fattening Old Hens. 

If I give in precept what I practice I have not much to say about fattening old hens. My 
experience has been that when through laying for the season which is to be their last with you, 
the best thing to do with them is to dispose of them at once, whatever their condition. Those 
that are fat will gain little by keeping. Those that are thin cannot be fatted in a short time, 
but must be brought up in condition first. Those that are in good condition might gain enough 
to warrant fattening if considered by themselves, but with the others, and in view of the fact 
that whatever the scale of operations, I have nearly always had younger stock to which it was 
worth while to give additional room, I have always felt that I made no mistake in disposing of 
the old hens in a bunch, letting them go as they were, and I think most poultrymen will find 
the same thing true. 

If, however, one wants to fatten his old hens the best plan is to confine quite closely and feed 
heavily a ration about the same as they have been getting for a good laying ration. More corn 
and more meat foods may be added, but with old hens it is not best to feed too heating foods, 
for they cannot stand it as the young stock will, and a few hens going off their feed and dying 
will cut into the profit so much that it would have been as well not to try to fatten. 



i 



lo4 FIRST LESSONS IN VOVLTBY KEEPING. 



LESSON XX 



Selling Market Poultry and Eggs. 



TO DISPOSE of the products of the poultry yard to best advantage often calls for as 
much knowledge, skill, and judgment as their production. This is a fact that too 
many "producers" fail to grasp. In common with the mass of producers in all 
agricultural lines, poultry keepers, especially those located a long way from the best 
markets, are apt -to regard the middlemen and the transportation companies as predatory 
individuals and concerns levying tribute on goods as they pass from producer to consumer. 
Much is said of "the middleman's profits." It is assumed that they are large and sure, and 
the poultry keeper is prone to feel that if in any way he can retain the part of the final selling 
price of his products which represents the difference between what he gets and what the con- 
sumer gives, his business will be much more profitable. • 

In general there is more error than truth in this view of the case as it applies to the person 
giving all or much of his time to poultry keeping; and I am not sure that the statement will 
not apply to ail classes of poultry keepers who sell eggs and poultry for table use. Even those 
located close to good markets often find it unprofitable to try to dispose of their produce direct 
to consumers. There are, of course, a great, many instances where it pays better to sell direct, 
but still I think the number of eases in which it pays better to sell goods through the regular 
channels of trade is very much greater. Both from my own experience and from what I have 
seen, I am so convinced of this that I think one should make all his plans and estimates on that 
basis unless he is absolutely sure of a direct market under unusually favorable conditions. 

Ordinarily the producer who sells direct to consumers, thereby keeping for himself the 
various amounts which usually go to commission and wholesale dealers, retailers, and transpor- 
tation companies, does the work of all these himself; and often it costs him more to do it than 
the difference in the wholesale and retail prices. 

He does not always realize this. With his mind intent on " the middleman's profit," it may 
not occur to him to figure outjust what it costs him to sell his produce direct, and how much 
more he could probably produce by giving all his time to production. 

When It Is Advisable to Sell Direct. 

If the quantities to be sold are small and can be conveniently delivered without taking time 
which might more profitably be given to something else; or 

If the poultry products can be sold from house to house with other stuff, as milk or vege- 
tables; 

If the quantities to be sold are large enough to make daily deliveries ; 

It may be more profitable to sell direct, though there are very few places where it is possible 
to make a large route for poultry and eggs alone profitable enough to warrant giving it the 
time of a man and team. There are many poultry keepers who, while keeping a few fowls, or 
a stock not large enough to require all their time, find it good policy to sell direct to consumers, 



F/h'ST LESSONS /.V POULTS I' KEEPING. 15$ 

hut as the amount they produce Increases, the relative conditions change. Where at first tin y 
put time in the selling of goods that Other vise would have heen unoccupied, as their hUBloesH 
increases the time given to preparing and delivering for private families is time that could be 
used to hetter advantage right in the poultry yard. 

It should be said, also, that the personality of the poultryman Is of some importance in deciding 
such a question as this. Qualifications as a salesman count for as much in disposing of prod- 
ucts as other qualifications do in producing them. As some people can produce chickens and 
eggs cheaper than others, get better results for the same investment or work : so some can sell 
hetter than others — can work goods off quicker, and often get better prices as well. Like 
several other matters we have considered during the year, the question of the best way to dis- 
pose of produce finally resolves itself into a question of what a certain individual can do under 
certain conditions, and the general advice I have given is what fits the case for most individual* 
in the greatest number of conditions. 

Taking up now the special consideration of the different methods of selling poultry 
products: 

Selling Eggs and Poultry to Private Customers. 

This means, as a rule, the delivery once or twice a week of an approximately uniform 
quantity of eggs during the greater part of the year. Most families economize on eggs for a 
few months when prices are highest; indulge in them more freely when prices are lowest,. 
but «luring the greater part of the year use the same number of dozens per week. The total 
number of regular customers a poultryman can take, can never be much greater than the 
number he can supply when etrgs are scarce. 

A few families will use poultry once or twice a week, and a few such customers can take the 
poultry product from quite a large plant if hatches happen to be so distributed through the 
ve;ix)ii that there is something to dress every week. The average family buys poultry about 
once in two or three weeks, and while such orders help out, unless a route has a goodly pro- 
portion of customers buying poultry once a week or oftener, it does not pay to supply it 
with poultry, — speaking now of a poultry and egg route. If other'produce is sold the case 
may be different. 

Selling to Large Consumers of Eggs and Poultry. 

Some private families trade would come under this heading, but under it I refer more par- 
ticularly to hotel, boarding house, restaurant, and soda fountain trade. Opportunities to self 
at a premium to this class of trade are not generally as good as they were before the days of 
modern cold storage methods. The more careful candling and grading of eggs by commission 
houses has also had its influence on the situation. These and the fact that many such con- 
sumers have arrangements with some poultryman for supplies of eggs, make it sometimes hard 
to find customers of this class. Another thing that works against the poultryman looking for 
this class of trade, is that so often poultrynien agree to furnish eggs, and within a few week> 
or months find themselves unable to keep to their agreement, and the customer is left in the 
lurch. 

If one happens to know or to get in touch with a good customer of this class, supplying this 
trade is one of the most satisfactory ways of disposing of eggs, but I doubt whether it would 
pay to spend much time looking for it. The prices obtained from this trade are sometimes a* 
good as the best from family trade, often a little lower, but as the goods are taken in larger 
quantities the lower price may be actually better. 

Probably the best trade of this kind for eggs, and certainly the best for poultry, is at the 
summer resort hotels in the north, and the winter resorts in the south. For practically all 
sales direct to consumers poultry must be. dressed. 

Harketing With One Middleman. 

A most satisfactory arrangemen: when it can be made, is to sell direct to retailers who sup- 
ply a high class grocery or p ovision trade. There are many such in every large city, and 
some in almost all towns, and as they can easily get fancy prices for fancy goods they are 



156 FIEST LESSONS' IN POULTBY KEEPING. 

willing to pay something more than regular market prices for goods that suit their trade — 
provided they can depend on getting them regularly, and always up to quality. For all they 
can work off in the ordinary course of trade such firms will usually pay the highest market 
price, taking goods as they come, up to the amount their trade calls for. But if they can be 
sure of a steady supply of extra choice goods they can make a specialty of them, push them 
and extend their trade in those lines to the joint profit of producer and distributor. 

The common obstacle to making arrangements of this kind is the inability of the producer to 
keep the volume of his produce steadily up to what he has agreed to furnish; repeated disap- 
pointments of this kind make these firms shy of conducting bargains with poultrymen 
unknown to them or whose ability to live up to their agreements remains to be proved. 
Hence the poultry keeper looking for a market of this kind Is apt to find them quite unre- 
«ponsive to the inducements he offers them. 

The best way to deal with this trade is not to attempt to get it until by experience you know 
just what you can be reasonably sure of being able to supply week in and week out through 
the season or the year, and then make an arrangement on that basis. Such an arrangement 
does not necessarily mean a contract for only what can be supplied when production is at the 
lowest point, for when production is lowest consumption is generally lowest also, and when 
production is greatest and prices lowest, consumption is greatly increased. A retailer who 
wanted two cases of eggs a week in November and December, might want four in April. A 
producer producing a case of eggs a week in November and December, might have the four 
cases a week in April, and as many as were wanted during three-fourths of the year, but if 
be could not meet the retailer's order for the season of slack production, and some one else 
could, the other party would get the trade. To put it another way, the producer must find a 
retailer whose needs it is within his ability to supply regularly. Such a customer he can hold 
if his goods and his dealings are right; but if he can but partly supply a customer his hold on 
that business is far more uncertain. 

Considering this fact with the general disposition of poultry keepers to enter into arrange- 
ments of this kind in the spring, and the too common necessity for dropping out of them before 
the summer is over: while I would certainly not advise anyone to let slip a contract of this 
kind that came his way, I would emphatically advise one not to devote much time to looking 
for such customers until experience had shown what quantities of produce he could safely 
engage to deliver. 

It may seem to some that it is as well to endeavor to get this trade for such periods as one 
can hold a customer each year, looking up a new customer each year if necessary, but as a rule 
customers of this class are not so easily obtained that one can afford to do this. 

riarketing With Two Tliddlemen. 

I can best illustrate this by describing the method of marketing the soft roaster crop of the 
South Shore section, to which reference has been made a number of times in these lessons. 

There few of the growers dress their poultry. It is sold alive to a few firms, some of which 
are also growers, and these firms dress the stock and distribute it to the retailers. By this 
method the inequalities of production are quite generally equalized. The grower is not under 
necessity of supplying a definite number of fowls each week, or at any regular interval. He 
holds his fowls until they are ready — at their best. The collectors, being in constant touch 
with many producers, know just what each has and approximately how many he will have 
ready at any given time, and arrange their collections accordingly, with the result that the 
trade is satisfactorily supplied, and the producer gets the benefit of a near connection with the 
retail trade without any of the difficulties of maintaining such connection which beset him 
when he sells direct to the trade. 

The opportunities to sell in this way are not general. They may, however, be found almost 
anywhere where production is considerable enough to make collecting worth while, and a 
good retail trade near enough to take the produce while still in first class condition. There 
are many communities In the territory tributary to the large market centers where collectors 
of eggs and poultry will handle them for the producer to better advantage than he can handle 
them for himself. 



FIJiST LESSONS TN POULTRY KEEPING. 1^7 

Marketing Through Common Trade Channels. 

Through the country ;it large poultry products after they leave the producer pass through 

several bands before reaching the consumer. In many places collectors send wagons all over 
the country surrounding their headquarters. In other places country merchants receive poultry 

and eggs direct from farmers, generally in exchange for goods, and forward them to buyers 
.it central points. From these they go to commission bouses In the large cities, or to the pack- 
ing concerns that handle poultry and eggs, and by these are distributed to jobbers and retailer-. 
an article frequently passing through four or five or more hands before reaching the con- 
sumer. 

Now because each party who handles the article has to be paid for his services, it does not 
follow that the producer will save by dispensing with those services. He will not unless he 
can perform them himself at less cost. This he may do in special cases, but usually it is more 
satisfactory to sell through the general channels, and it is always the better way unless one is 
sure he has a better arrangement and with reliable parties. 

The poultry keeper whose products pass through numerous hands before they reach the 
consumer, and who perhaps receives not more than half of the retail price, is apt to feel that 
too large a proportion of the price goes to those who have labored least. Such a view of the 
matter is superficial. I would not dissuade anyone from attempting to get all he can out of his 
produce, but I do believe that the mistaken feeling that middlemen get more than their fair 
share of the profits on poultry tends to keep down the production of poultry, and I want to> 
contribute what 1 can to the removal of that feeling. Nearly always the poultry keeper profit- 
most by giving his attention principally to production, and putting out his produce through the 
best channels of trade that reach him, whether these take it through many or few hands. 

Holding Produce for High Prices. 

Here we have another matter in which producers, endeavoring to get as much as possible out 
of their product, may make a mistake. 

With the perfecting of modern methods of cold storage, the market for limed and otherwise 
preserved eggs has quitf disappeared. There is practically no market for eggs held in pro- 
ducers' hands at prices that will make it worth while to hold them. Whatever may be said of 
the profitableness of preserving eggs for home use during the period of least production, to hold 
them to sell at that time is so seldom profitable that the poultryman is wisest who dismisses it 
from his thoughts, and markets his eggs fresh at the best going prices they will command. 

Poultry should be marketed when ready for the use for which it is intended. Broilers and) 
roasters should go at the weights, (and this means weight in good condition), at which they 
will bring the best prices, and the wise poultryman who is looking foe trade in table poultry 
hatches his chickens as nearly as possible to have them ready when they will bring most money. 
They may be held a little while, or worked off a little early, according to condition and prices- 
One does not have to be exact to a day and an ounce; but to sell to best advantage, any lot of 
chickens has to go about the time it is fit. If held longer it is fed without profit, and may go- 
back and be held at a loss. A fuller consideration of the points that arise in this connection, 
must wait for future lessons on broilers and roasters. 

Selling Poultry Alive. 

When sold to a special class of trade, poultry is usually dressed by the producer or collector- 
When Bold to the general trade, it is dressed or sold alive, according to circumstances, the prin- 
cipal determining matters being the custom in the vicinity, and the grower's judgment as to 
which way will give him best returns. Some markets want nearly all live poultry; some nearly 
all dressed. St. Louis belongs to the former class: Boston has been a conspicuous dressed poul- 
try market, taking comparatively little live poultry, but conditions are changing somewhat- 
and a great deal of poultry is coming here alive now, and many growers tell me the returns ou 
live poultry are close enough to the returns on dressed to make it a matter of indifference »o 
far as profit is concerned, whieh way they shift. This has not long been so. Until quite 
recently a grower who sold good poultry alive for this market generally sacrificed a good part 
of his profit. 



158 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

In shipments of live poultry, returnable slatted coops are used, the express companies return- 
ing the coops free of charge. 

Methods of Killing and Dressing Poultry. 

Poultry sold to a private or special trade may be dressed any way the trade will take it. 
Poultry to be sold dressed to the general trade, should be killed and dressed to suit the market 
to which it goes. As far as I am informed, all the more important markets want fowls with 
heads and feet on, and undrawn. There are good reasons for this; the undrawn fowl if 
properly starved before killing, keeps better than one that is drawn and the air thus admitted 
to the cavity of the body. The head and feet left on a fowl serve to show more of its age and 
coudition than the average customer would discover without them. In selling dressed poultry 
to private or special trade, heads and feet are often removed, and occasionally fowls are drawn, 
though this is rarely done except for customers who request it. If one is selling fowls both 
ways, the best way to arrange the prices is to weigh all fowls undrawn and charge those whose 
fowls are drawn the price for undrawn plus a small charge for drawing. When selling 
dressed poultry to private trade I used to weigh and tag all carcasses singly or in pairs as 
required, after they were cooled. Then for customers who wanted them drawn we selected 
the weights wanted, and charged on the original, not on the weight after drawing. I don't 
think it would be found satisfactory to attempt to make a price for drawn poultry and one 
for undrawn. 

Ratio of Prices for Drawn and Undrawn Poultry. 

If a poultryman is selling his poultry all drawn, and wanted to know what to make his 
price with relation to the price for undrawn poultry, the best way td arrive at it is to weigh 
nn average lot of undrawn poultry, draw and weigh again. Then take the value of the poultry 
undrawn at the market price, add to it the charge for drawing, divide by the number of pounds 
the lot weighed drawn, and the resulting figure is the price per pound for the drawn poultry. 

Scalding or Dry Picking? 

Poultry to be sold in the eastern markets should be dry picked, for dry picked poultry 
usually sells better and brings a few cents more per pound than scalded poultry. For western 
markets scalded poultry is preferred for home consumption, but the surplus that is shipped 
east works out better if dry picked. The method of picking therefore will be determined by 
where the poultry is to be consumed. 

Poultry dressed for private trade will go just as readily scalded as dry picked, unless scald- 
ing is badly botched, ajad as picking after scalding is much easier than dry picking, it is quite 
generally the practice of those who sell direct to consumers even in this vicinity, unless they 
have enough to require the services of an expert picker, or to keep themselves in practice dry 
picking. 

How to Kill. 

If fowls are to be sold with heads ofl' they may be killed by cutting off the head, in the good 
old fashioned way. 

If the head is to be left on, they should be killed by bleeding through a cut made generally 
into the roof of the mouth, and penetrating the brain. The method of making the cut has 
been often described, and some descriptions of dressing fowls have been quite profusely illus- 
trated with photos of different stages of the operations of killing and plucking. The practical 
value of either words or pictures in teaching such operations seems problematical. When we 
consider how much practice with expert personal instruction it takes to make a skillful picker, 
we cannot make a very high estimate of the value of such instruction as it is possible to 
give on paper. I would advise every one who wants to learn to dress fowls or to learn 
another or better method than that with which he is familiar, to go to an expert picker for a 
practical demonstration, if it is at all possible for him to do so. I give herewith several state- 
ments of killing methods as given by different experts, and those who must learn by the book 
may take their choice. 



FIRST LESSONS rx POULTRY KEEPING, 159 

Sticking with the Fowl Held Under the Arm. 

In one of the mosl popular methods the fowl is held under the left arm, breast up, the mouth 
held open with the fingers of the left hand, while with a knife held in the right hand a cut is 
made first across the roof of the mouth at the base of the brain, then the knife is turned and u 
deep cut made to penetrate the brain. The tirst cut severs an artery from which the fowl 
begins to bleed to death. The cut into the brain produces insensibility, and causes the 
feathers to relax so that they may be easily removed. 

Then the picker sits down and begins to remove the feathers. This process is rapidly or 
more slowly performed according to the skill of the operator and the condition of the fowls. 
A fowl in good condition with full plumage, is generally easy to pick, but the impression given 
by some writers that if the fowl is properly stuck the feathers come out easily, and if feathers 
do not come easily the fault must be In the sticking, is wrong — according to the testimony of 
professional pickers. The pickers say that the same lot of fowls may pick hard in the morning, 
easy In the afternoon, or vice versa, and this when the sticking is the same and several pickers 
are working together, so that it is not reasonable to suppose that they are all sticking wrong, 
even if there were any probability of a Bingle expert doing so. I emphasize this point because 
a novice who tries sticking and dry picking and tinds it not so easy as from the books he got 
the impression that it was, is likely to puzzle himself over the method of sticking, concluding 
that he must be at fault there. He may be, but it does not follow necessarily, and be should be 
able to understand the situation better if he knows that even with experts picking is sometimes 
hard and slow, and that when rapidly done it is done by skill and hard work. A skillful 
picker will remove most of the feathers from a fowl with a few sweeping motions, but it will 
take 1dm longer to set the feathers that remain, and if the fowl is full of pin feathers their 
removal takes some time, no matter how skillful the picker. 

The New Jersey Method. 

To kill and pluck a fowl by the New Jersey method, Dr. P. T. Woods gives the following 
directions in " Profitable Market Poultry," published by the Cyphers Incubator Co., a book 
which contains much of interest and value to those growing poultry for market: — 

" Provide two barrels, one for blood and waste feathers, and the other for the feathers that 
iire to be saved. Place these against the side of the wall of the killing house. Have a good 
sharp knife with a medium sized blade, an ordinary pocket knife will answer. * * * 

" A nail should be driven In the w r all above the center of the barrel intended for blood and 
wHste feathers, at a point a little higher than the head of the picker. A noose of stout cord a 
few inches long is attached to this naii. The fowl's feet are secured in this noose, so that the 
fowl hangs up by its legs against the wall, on a line about level with the operator's shoulders. 
The fowl should hang in such a position that the operator can readily grasp the head and neck 
w ith the left hand, the arm in an almost horizontal position, with the elbow against the side of 
the body. * * • 

" (irasp the neck of the fowl with the thumb and forefinger of the left hand, draw the hand 
gently downward until it strikes the angle of the jaw, forcing the fowl's mouth open without 
choking it. Hold the mouth (irmly open with the third finger. The knife is first introduced 
into the throat, and with a couple of quick motions up and down, the larger arteries at the 
side of the neck just below the ear, are severed so that the bird bleeds freely. Now, hold the 
knife at an angle with the bird's bill, pointing toward the back part of the roof of the mouth 
in a line with the eye; with a rapid movement drive the knife through the roof of the mouth 
into the base of the bird's brain, and give a quick half turn to the blade/' 

As has already been said, sticking may best be learned by personal demonstration. If that is 
out of the question, and it Is desirable to learn to kill that way, and to dry pick, practice on 
fowh to be consumed at home until sufficient skill is developed to enable you to turn off a 
good looking carcass. Meantime pick by any method you know, or hire someone to pick for 
you, but don't botch the killing of a lot of fowls you want to go to market and bring good 
prices. Badly dressed poultry will not bring first class prices. 



160 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 

How to Scald a Fowl. 

For the novice, scalding is the easier method, and if he has a proper equipment, and uses- 
fair judgment in scalding, he need not spoil the looks of his poultry in the scalding. 

If the fowl is to be sold with head on, kill as described above, or make the cut in the neck, 
severing the head just back of the ear from the body, without cutting the skin more than is 
necessary to insert the knife. 

To scald, have a kettle or other vessel of water just below the boiling point. Have the 
vessel large enough and enough water in it, to maintain an even temperature and to give room 
to souse the fowl well and quickly. I used to scald in the set kettle in which we cooked our 
mash. This was a fifty gallon kettle set in brick work. We would put six or eight pails of 
water in it, put enough fire under to bring it almost to the boiling point, and cover the kettle 
until the water was ready. Usually what coals were under the kettle at that time would keep- 
the water hot while we scalded what fowls were to be killed — about thirty to forty at a time- 
In any case a few pieces of small wood added would keep the water right. 

We cut heads off, so had only to take a fowl by the feet, plunge under water and swash, 
about and up and down once or twice, and take out. With a well feathered fowl the water 
scarcely touched the skin, but the feathers were well wet and steamed up, and were very easily 
removed. 

If a fowl or chicken was poorly feathered or had bare spots we plunged it into the water 
quickly and took right out. This gave a poor " scald,*' but avoided damaging the skin. 

The common trouble with scalded poultry is tbat the water is either too hot or too cold, or 
the scalding done in so small a vessel that the feathers cannot be wet without the skin being 
scalded. 

When the head is to be left on, the fowl must be taken by both head and feet and the 
feathers wet without the hot water scalding the head, otherwise the head would present a most 
unattractive appearance. 

Cleaning and Cooling. 

Whatever method of killing and plucking is used, the carcass should be clean, well plucked, 
and made as attractive as possible. Slipshod and slovenly dressing will make good poultry 
grade low. There are several things which detract from the appearance and selling value of. 
poultry as it reaches the consumer. 

The first of these is the fitting of poultry for killing. It should be kejt without food for at 
least twenty-four hours before killing, that the crop and intestines may be empty. If the crop 
contains food the carcass looks bad, and the food souring in it may taint the meat. If the 
intestines are not empty their contents may affect the meat of the parts near them. For looks, 
quality, and keeping properties, the starving before killing is necessary. 

Many fowls well killed and well plucked, are not made clean before being sent to market. 
Blood is left on the head and mouth, and often manure on the feet, and bloody smears on the 
skin. The carcass should be clean, the parts to be cut off as well as what is to be eaten. 

A great deal of dressed poultry begins to spoil before it reaches consumers, or spoils quickly 
in their hands, because it has not been properly cooled. This is the trouble, too, with much of 
the poultry the grower thinks is first class, while dealers and buyers rate it lower. Poultry 
that has not been properly cooled spoils quickly, and is apt to be flabby and insipid. 

Place the carcasses as soon as dressed clean in cold water. Kunning water is best, but still 
water changed a few times will .do. In hot weather it is best to use ice. Thorough cooling 
requires several hours. It will do no harm to keep the carcasses in the cold water all day, or 
over night, and that may be advisable if the weather is warm. If the weather is cool enough it 
is better to take the carcasses out of the water when cool, and hang in a cool place until ready 
to pack them. 

The object of cooling is to get the animal heat out of the body as quickly as possible. If this 
is not done decomposition sets in almost at once, and advances rapidly, and the poultry which 
leaves the producer's hands apparently in fine condition reaches its market in bad shape, the 
Bblpper gets returns for a lower grade of stuff than he shipped, and often concludes that the 
parties he shipped to were dishonest, when the fault was all his own. 



Fin ST LESSONS IX POULTRY KEEPING. 16 ] 



LESSON XXI 



Selling Exhibition Stock and Eggs for Hatching. 



FEW keepers of thoroughbred fowls do not have some opportunities to sell stock and 
eggs for hatching at better prices than would be obtained from common stock. Nearly 
all want to take advantage of such opportunities. A great many regard them as 
beginnings of a trade which may develop to proportions which will warrant their 
giving their time exclusively to this business. 

Advertising. 

Some opportunities to sell come without " advertising." To all who see it a nice flock of 
fowls is its own advertisement, and is sure to excite in some a wish to have some of the same 
stock. Whether this unsolicited demand for stock and eggs would alone become worth while, 
depends mostly on the location. In a section where the poultry interests are as yet little 
developed, It would not be likely to amount to much for some time. In places where the 
interest is good and growing, a poultryman located where many passers by see his stock, will 
sometimes be able to do quite a large trade without advertising in the public prints, but in 
most cases the man who wants to sell fowls and eggs to any substantial amount must make 
announcement of that fact through mediums which reach many more people who want to buy 
than see his stock accidentally. Where one man may build up a local trade without adver- 
tising a hundred to get the same volume of trade must advertise judiciously and continuously 

The poultry papers are unquestionably the best mediums for advertising poultry and eggs. 
They circulate almost wholly among people interested in poultry and possible buyers of stock 
and eggs. Some of them have a proportion of sample copy and premium circulation to people 
who do not read them, but, as a rule, the papers go to persons especially interested in poultrv 
and in the habit of looking through their poultry papers for advertisements of anything in this 
line they may want. Farm papers as a class are far below the poultry papers as mediums for 
advertising poultry, though a few farm papers giving especial attention to poultry are good. 
Daily and weekly local papers It is seldom worth while to advertise poultry in. Occasionally- 
one will make something of a specialty of poultry advertising, especially in the Sunday paper> 
and give very good returns, hut these cases are exceptional. Oftener the money spent in 
advertising in them might as well be thrown away. Some years ago I a ran three inch ad. for 
a month in the height of the egg season in one of the best positions in a daily paper without 
making a single sale. At the same t'.ne an ad. published in a poultry paper published several 
thousand miles away was bringing me customers right in my home town who read the local 
pipers every day, yet never saw the ad., because they were not thinking of poultry when read- 
ing it. When they took up their poultry paper they looked all through it, looking particularly 
for ads. of breeders near them. 



162 FIRST LESSONS IN FOUL THY REEFING. 

Which Poultry Paper, and How Much Space. 

The best advertising medium for the beginner should be the paper having the largest circu- 
lation in his vicinity and section, for until he makes a reputation that extends beyond his own 
locality most of his sales are likely to be to people living not far from him. This rule will not,, 
however, always hold good for large — and much less for small advertisers. In some papers 
the small advertiser has little show, every effort of the publisher being directed to drawing the 
attention of readers to the larger advertisers; in others, small advertisements are relatively as 
profitable as large ones. In any paper, though, a small ad. may run for sometime without 
attracting attention or making sales, hence the beginner in advertising should keep hi* adver- 
tising expense within what he is able to stand though no sales are made, for while it is true 
that the volume of business done through a paper has some relation to the amount of space used 
in it, large ads. alone do not always attract attention in the way the advertiser wants them to ; 
and if a poultryman with no reputation and no experience in advertising relies upon the pulling 
power of size in his ads. he is likely to be disappointed. In a paper like Farm-Poultry, 
with the small ads. classified and given a place in the body of the book on reading pages, the 
small classified ad. is the best beginning for most small advertisers. 

How to Write an Advertisement. 

Your advertisement should be a brief plain statement calling attention to what you have to 
s« 1 and generally giving your prices or range of prices. The object of the advertisement is 
nut to sell the stock directly through the advertisement. It is simply an announcement for the 
purpose of putting you in communication with persons who want goods of the kind you have 
to sell. Occasionally buyers order direct from an ad. Oftener some correspondence passes 
before a sale is made. The prime object of the advertisement is to bring you the names of pos- 
sible customers, and that is the most that a paper can do for an advertiser; further results 
depend upon himself. 

Whatever the expert advertiser may do, the beginner should avoid fantastic effects either in 
statement or in mechanical arrangement of an ad. Make your statement straightforward, to 
the point, and without a superfluous word. 

Answering Correspondence. 
Every letter received from an ad. should be given some sort of reply promptly. The average 
inquirer writes to a number of advertisers at the same time, aud those who reply at once stand 
the best chances of milking sales. As a rule, the reply should be limited to matters pertaining 
directly to the business transaction. Many persons in writing about stock or eggs ask for more 
or lessinformation on other matters. These questions may properly be passed with the state- 
ment that you cannot take time to reply to them. To decline to reply to such questions, and to 
give straightforward replies to pertinent questions, is the best policy. 

" Have neat and appropriate stationery, letter heads bearing your name and that of the breed 
or breeds of fowls you keep, and as much general information about them as seems appropri- 
ate and can be used without crowding too much printed matter on the page, and envelopes 
with your name, address, and the name of your yards, or farm, or of your breeds. It pa\s te 
be modest in these announcements. Don't proclaim yourself a specialist in any breed or 
variety until you really have gained some recognition as such. I get many letters from poul- 
trvmen calling themselves specialists in the breeds they keep, asking me the most elementary 
questions about those breeds, and about the general principles of breeding; and I often wonder 
what sort of letters these specialists write to their business correspondents, and how the letters 
read to the latter. I am sure the prospective customer must often see through the pretensions 
implied in the use of such terms and the exaggerations in the letter head notices of the stock, 
and a customer is lost when otherwise a sale would have been made. If you are new in the 
business and feel tempted to make as strong claims in your advertising as some of those who 
have been at it much longer, remember that only those as new or newer than yourself are likely 
to fail to see through it, and you virtually limit your sales to this class, while, if you really 
have good stock a plain and unpretentious statement of the fact is likely to bring you a pro- 
portion of trade from those who really know something about it, and know when they get 
what they order und good value for their money. 



FIRST LF.ssoSS IN POULTRY KEF TING. 162 

The begiuuer is apt to think that he can only sell to novices, any way. This is a mistake. 
Many a beginuer h:ts stock that older bands are glad to get, and will pay him more for tnan 
beginners would. The profit in the thoroughbred poultry and egg trade depends on selling 
to those who t-an use good stock and will pay for it. A trade that is limited to low priced 
stock can be B profitable trade only when conducted on a very large scale. 

The Question of Values. 

How much better than market prices one may obtain for eggs and stock depends upon 
several thiugs, most important of which are — the stock — the demand — the poultry keeper 
himself. 

The basis of values of poultry and eggs is their market value. Whatever can be obtained 
for them over ami above market prices represents generally the amount of the premium some 
one is willing to pay on some superficial quality he sees in the stock or on expectations of what 
he hopes to realize from it. The beginner who grasps that fact will find it easier to adjust 
himself and what business he does in thoroughbred poultry and eggs to the conditions of the 
business. 

The market values of etrgs and fowls are their bed rock values. There is an open market 
for eggs and table poultry, and in this market, with an occasional slight exception, one man's 
stuff brings the same price as any other stuff of the same quality. When we come to breeding 
and exhibition values we have values from an entirely different standpoint. Mr. B., who is 
a beginner in poultry, has stock from Mr. M., who, we will say, is a leading breeder of White 
Wyandottes. His stock is better than that of Mr. P., who has some reputation as a breeder 
of White Wyandottes, but not equal to that of Mr. M. 

Now if values in this line were absolute, or governed by fixed standards, Mr. B. should be 
able to sell his stock for the same price as Mr. M. does, and for better prices thau Mr. P. does. 
But Mr. B. usually finds that he has to sell such fowls and eggs as he does sell at lower prices 
than those P. gets, and away below those of M., whose stock is practically the same. He may 
happen to have a better bird of M.'s stock than M. has, yet he cannot begin to get the price for 
it that M. would. There is nothing strange and nothing wrong in this situation. The prices 
of '• fancy " stock are governed to some extent by quality by the fancier's standard, but to an 
equal or greater extent by the reputation of the seller. This reputation is based on the 
results of years of breeding, exhibition, and selling of stock, and while the degree of reputa- 
tion depends on these things, the extent of the reputation depends more on the individually of 
he man in question, on his ability to sell goods, and on the volume, persistence, and effective- 
ness of bin advertising. 

The reputation which enables a breeder to get very high prices for what he has to sell 
represents years of bard work and the investment of a good deal of money, and it is some- 
thing that cannot be transferred. It attaches to the breeder rather than to the stock. 

The-beginner must be satisfied at first to sell stock for less than older breeders are selling 
stock of the same or inferior quality, but he ought not to put prices so low as to discredit his 
stock, or attract only the cheapest trade. It is better to market it than to do that. 

About the specific prices to be fixed, it is hard to advise, and equally difficult to describe the 
sort of stock that should be used to fill an order at any specified price. Accurate knowledge 
along this line comes, to those to whom it does come, only through experience in buying and 
selling and observation of the purchases and sales of others. It depends very much on judg- 
ment of quality, and it is in this respect that a great many beginners fall, mistaken judgment 
leading them sometimes to give culls where they should send some of their best birds, or to use 
very valuable birds to fill orders at low prices. There is no intentional dishonesty or special 
favoring here, and the seller himself suffers more than anyone else from his mistakes, but the 
efforts of people who know neither quality nor values to do business in thoroughbred poultry 
have a most unsettling aud deplorable effect on the general trade in what we may call the low 
trades of good stock. Much of this trouble would be avoided if poultry keepers would refrain 
from selling stock until they were in a position to supply the produce of their own breeding. 

If I were to attempt to give rules to govern in the sale of stock, I would give a few simple 



164 FIBST LESSONS IN POUL'IRY KEEPING. 

rules like the following, which I wish it understood are offered simply us suggestions, though 
stated more in the form of rules. Few rules could !>e given to sun all cases, but each may 
apply the suggestions as far as he sees fit: 

1. Never sell a fowl that you need unless you are sure you can replace it with a better one 
and make something on the transaction. 

2. Never send out an unhealthy, undersized, or deformed fowl on a mail order. To persons 
who see the stock and know its faults, and buy understanding!) , such stock may be sold — 
though it is a question whether it pays the seller to dispose of it for stock purposes at any price. 

3. If you are entirely new in the business and can get an expert's advice in the matter have him 
sort over what stock you have to sell, and give you the approximate values of each lot. Son)* 
people have their birds scored and sell by the score, but private scoring is so much in disreput- 
through the abuses that develop in connection with it that it is probably as well to sell by 
description. 

4. Always describe a fowl fairly ; you may lose some sales by doing this, hut in the long run 
will hold more customers. 

5. Always sell stock on approval, giving the purchaser the privilege of returning the fov\ Is 
promptly if not satisfactory. 

6. If you find you cannot fill an order with stock of the Quality \ou know should be used, 
return it or advise the customer of the situation, state what >ou can do, and await instructions. 
Don't try to piece out an order with inferior birds and take chances of the customer accepting 
them. 

7. Keep the stock you have to sell in good condition, and keep it separate from the stock you 
reserve. Have at least enough of it to fill one or two short orders where you can get it easily, 
at a moment's notice, if need be, and send it away in condition that will not discredit you. 

Shipping Stock. 

Coops for shipping fine fowls are now sold in knock down bundles so cheaply that unless 
one has lots of spare time ft is cheaper to buy them than to make shipping coops. They come 
in a variety of sizes, and can be put together in a few minutes. If one is making only an occa- 
sional shipment, and it is not worth while to purchase a supply of coops, any light box of suit- 
able size may be used, but if it is an object to advertise oneself through these shipments, care 
should be taken to use neat, clean boxes. % 

For shipments that are to be on the road only a day or thereabouts, a little less grain than 
would be fed the number of fowls in the coop if at lii>erty, may be thrown on the floor of the 
coop, it having been previously covered well with chaff, and a good sized piece of mangel or of 
cabbage will furnish succulent food that makes watering in transit unnecessary in moderate 
weather. In extremely warm weather do not ship. Do not send fowls off in a cold sunp. 
For long journeys water cups must be provided, fastened in the corner of the coop in such 
position that the water may be poured in through the space in the top. Grain for long dis- 
tance shipments may be put in a small bag tied to the coop in such manner that the express- 
man can get at it easily. Vegetables should be placed in the coop. 

When shipping, notify the customer so that the notice will reach him either with or a little 
in advance of the fowls. Do this though you may previously have advised him when you 
would ship* If you know or have reason to suppose that the customer is "green" about 
handling stock, advise him in your letter to be careful about giving water freely at tirst. Tell 
him briefly how it lias been fed, that he may avoid a radical change. Urge him to keep the 
new birds isolated from the rest of his stock for a week or two. This last is a special measure 
of self defense. If the customer has latent disease among his stock, your healthy birds put in 
with the rest might contract the disease in virulent form, and you would be blamed for having 
sent him sick stock, when, as a matter of fact, the fault was his. 

The Season for Sales of 5tock. 

The breeder who has a large and long established trade makes some sales the year round. 
The beginner's sales of stock are usually limited to a few months immediately preceding the 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 165 

breeding seasou. December, January, and February will see the most of his sales, and he need 
not feel discouraged if he finds no demand until well on in January. The class of trade he 
will get at first does not buy freely until signs of spring begin to be in evidence. A few warm 
days at any time after New Years is apt to have a marked effect on inquiries for stock. 

Selling Eggs for Hatching. 

Like the trade in stock, the egg trade is for most poultry men limited to a short season. 
Comparatively few shipments of eggs are made until the season is far enough advanced to make 
it likely that the weather will i>e somewhat settled by the time the chicks are hatched. 

If one sells eg<;s he should sell from the same matings he uses himself. He may occasionally 
reserve a few birds in special matings, but even so, these special matings should be experi- 
mental rather than in the way of reserving the cream of his stock, unless the eggs sold are 
offered at a price away below the value of eggs from the birds reserved. 

Many breeders who hatch large numbers of chickens for themselves make a practice of 
dividing the eggs equally day by day , reserving half and using half to fill orders. Others 
whose egg trade is larger in proportion to their ability to supply it, find it necessary at times 
to ship all or nearly all of their eggs just at the season they most waut them for themselves, 
or else return many orders. A breeder who sells himself short of eggs at the best hatching 
season runs the rls£ of crippling himself for stock at the end of the season. 

Whatever practice is followed, the gpller must be fair to bis customer, remembering that it 
i9 chances the customer buys in eggs, and giving him " a square deal" both with reference to 
himself and to other customers. 

And whatever breeders of reputation may do about sending out inferior looking eggs from 
fine specimens, the novice in the business will find it his best policy to send out none but 
good looking eggs. 

In the matter of guaranteeing fertility, most breeders do not guarantee fertility, and replace 
eggs that fail to hatch only when from what they know of the way their rg^s are hatching 
they feel thut they ought to do so. Some guarantee a certain per cent hatch, if the infertiles 
are returned to them. 

For shipping eggs the boxes and baskets made especially for that purpose are, all things 
considered, most satisfactory to use. 



<f> 



166 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



I N DEX . 



Advertising, 161. 

Age for weaning chicks, 53. 

Age of breeding stock, 22. 

Albuminous food elements, 113. 

Alfalfa, 8, 12 37. 

American D.mainiques, 26. 

American types, 25. 

Animal food, 95. 

Animal organism, needs of, 113, 

Appetite, 16. 

Asiatic types, 25. 

Barred varieties, mating, 31. 

Beak, shape of, 28. 

Beards, 28. 

Black varieties, mating,, 29. 

Bone, how much to feed, 16. 

Box coops, advantages of, 44. 

Boxes, feed, 123. 

Boxes for grit, shell, etc., 128. 

Brahma type, 2&. 

Bran, 8. 

Breeding stock, selection of, 19. 

Breed shape, 20, 24. 

Broken feathers, removing, 143. 

Brooder houses, 109. 

Brood, number in, 47. 

Brown Leghorns, mating, 34. 

Buff varieties, mating, 30. 

Building materials, 64. 

Cabbage, S, 137. 

Cake, baked for chicks, 50. 

Carbonaceous food elements, 113, 

Cat proof coops, 45. 

Change, effects of, 95. 

Charcoal, 8. 

Chicks, feeding, 48. 

Chicks helping out of shell, 42. 

Chicks, how many in brood, 47. 

Chicks, how often to feed, 51. 

Chicks, late hatched, 58. 

Chick s, marking, 46. 

Chicks, rearing with hens, 43. 

Chicks, separating, 57. 

Chicks, taking from nest, 46. 

Chicks, teaching to roost, 54. 

Chicks, water for, 52. 

Chicks, weaning, 53. 

Chicks, yard room for, 55. 

Chilled eggs, 41. 

Chloro-naptholeum for mites, 136. 

Cleaning dressed poultry, 160. 

Cleanliness with sitting hens, 40. 

Clipped wings in exhibition fowls, 142- 

Closed houses, 61. 

< Lover, 8, 12, 137. 

Cochin type,26w 

Cold houses, 76. 
Color of plumage, 27. 
Comb, kinds of, 28. 



Comb, lopped, 142. 

Compensation maliugs, 21. 

Condiments, 8. 

Condition and feeding, 16. 

Confining hens to nests, 40. 

Connecting pen houses, 60. 

Constitutional vigor, 20. 

Continuous house plans, 102. 

Continuous vs. separate bouses, 99w 

Cooling dressed poultry. 160. 

Coops, 43. 

Coops, for weaned chicks, 53. 

Coops, placing, 47. 

Coo~>s, why use, 45. 

Corn, as food, 114. 

Corn, feeding whole, 7. 

Correspondence, answering, 162. 

Crests, 28. 

Cubic space for fowl, 63. 

Culling chicks, 47. 

Culling young stock, 135. 

Damaged foods, feeding, 119. 

Dark nests, 125. 

Davis' poultry house plan. 78. 

Disqualifications, 141. 

Dominique, American, 26. 

Dorking type, 26. 

Double comb, see Rose comb. 

Double mating, 22. 

Double mating of Barred Rocks, 31. 

Drinking vessels, 124. 

Droppings boards, 120. 

Dry feeding, 10. 

Dry feed systems, 9. 

Dry grain ration a, 12. 

Dry mash rations, 12. 

Dry picking, 158. 

Dust bath, 41, 128. 

Dust, laying in supply, 136. 

Ear lobes, 28. 

Economy in feeding best, 134. 

Effects of change, 95. 

Egg foods, 8. 

Eggs, chilled, 41. 

Eggs for hatching, about, 39. 

Eggs for hatching, selling, 165. 

Eggs, number to set to a hen, 39. 

Eggs, testing, 41. 

Evening mash. 9. 

Excelsior for nests, 37. 

Exercise and feeding, 16. 

Exercise in fitting exhibition (owls, 145. 

Exhibiting fowls, 139. 

Exhibition Game type, 27. 

Failures, why the. 5. 

Fallacies, some scientific, 114. 

Fats, 113. 

Fattening fowls In summer, 97. 

Fattening old heus, 153. 



FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



167 



Fattening poultry, 149. 

Feathers on shanks, 141. 

Feathers, removing broken, 113. 

Fool. how iiiucli, 16, 

Feed, now often to, 14. 

Feed, how to learn t<>, n~. 

Feeding, best way to economize -n. 134. 

Feeding chicks Cor stock purposes, 56. 

Feeding growing chicks, 55. 

Feeding market chicks, 56. 

Feedlug, practice in, 118. 

Feeding, simple vs. scientific, 11*2. 

Feeding, special, 96. 

Feeding, summer, 95. 

Feeding, three prime factors In, 119. 

Feeding young chicks, 18. 

Feed, keeping by chicks, 51. 

Feed troughs, boxes and hoppers, 1*28. 

Feed troughs for chicks, 51, 

Fenses, permanent, 130. 

Fence, the simplest, 129. 

Fitting for exhibition, 14-1. 

Fixed feeding standards, 115. 

Fixtures, poultry house, i.e. 

Floors, 64. 

Floor space per fowl, 63. 

Flour, 8, 63. 

Food elements. 113. 

Food for silting hens, 39. 

Foods, 7. 

Food supplies for a flock. S, 

Forcing exhibition fowls for weight, 145. 

Foundations, t;4. 

Fowl, how to catch a. 143. 

Fowls, how judged, 14e. 

Fresh air, importance of, 135. 

Game types, 26. 

Gales, 132. 

Golden Laced varieties, mating, 33. 

Golden Penciled varieties, mating, 33. 

Grain and meat mash, 12. 

Grain, how much, 15. 

Green food, 8, 95. 

Green food In fitting exhibition fowls. 144. 

Green foods, winter supply, 137. 

Grit, 8. 

(irit, shell, etc., receptacles. 128. 

Grooming exhibition fowls, 145. 

Grosvenor's poultry house. 87, 

Hamburg type, 26. 

Hatching, what to do when. 42. 

Hatching With hens. 35. 

Hawk proof coops, 4."». 

Hay for litter. 187. 

Height of walls, 62. 

Helping chicks out of shell. 42. 

Hens, old, as layer-, 91. 

Holding poultry for high prices. 157. 

Hoppers.feed, 128, 

Hon dan t> pe, 26. 

Honse capacity and dimensions, 

House for a dozen fowls, 67. 

House for twenty-five fow 

H use for seventy-five fowls. 70. 

Houses, brooder, 109. 

Hon -t-s. continuous vs. separate, 99. 

Houses, making ready for winter. 186. 

House with walk, widthof, t-4. 



Housing methods, 60. 

Mow often lo feed, 14, 51. 
How to catch a fowl, 148. 
How to make a nesl, 87. 
How to scald a fowl, 160. 
How to set hens, 88. 

Inbreeding, 28. 

Incubator rooms, H:fi. 

Indian Game type, 27. 
l Qsectlcldes, using, 41, 
Java type, 26. 
Johnnycakc, 50. 

Jumping for exercise, 17. 

Killing poultry, 15S. 

Laced varieties, mating, S3. 

Langslian ty pe, 25. 

Late hatched chicks, 58. 

I. avers, old hens as, 91. 

Laying stock, feeding In winter, 14. 

Leaf comb, 28. 

Leaves for litter, 137. 

Leghorn type, 25. 

Legs, 29. 

Lice, treating chicks for, 52. 

Lice, treating sitting hens for, 41. 

Light Brahmas, mating, 32. 

Like begets like, 19. 

Line breeding, 23. 

Literature of mating fowls, 34. 

Litter, 137. 

Live poultry, selling, 157. 

Lopped comb, 142. 

.Machine fattening, 153. 

Maine poultry house, 80. 

Making a mash, 12, 

Mangels, 137. 

Marking chicks, 46. 

Mash, feeding, 9. 

Mash, how much, 15. 

Mash, making a, 12. 

Materials, building, 64. 

Mating, 21, 29. 

Mating, double, 22. , 

Mating, engaging experts for, 22. 

Mating fowls, literature of, 34. 

Mating, two systems of, 31. 

Meat and grain mash, 12. 

Meat foods, 8. 

Meat, how much to feed, 16. 

Methods of feeding, 9. 

Middlemen, 154. 

Middlings, 8. 

Milk for fowls,8. 

Millet, quality and feeding, 7. 

Minorca type, 25. 

Mites, 136. 

Mixed Chop, 7. 

Molting, 97. 

Molting hens, rations for, 98. 

Monitor-top bouse, 62. 

Morning mash, 9, 

Mothers, faults of hens a<. 45. 

Mothers, selecting hen- for, 41'). 

Nature's checks and balances, 114. 

Nesl boxes for sitting bet 

Nests confining hens to, 40. 

N'est. bow to make a, 87. 
Nesl 8 for laying hens. 126. 



168 



FIR SI LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



Nests, number needed, 125. 

Nests, skeleton, 126. 

Nitrogeuous food elements, 113. 

Noon mash, 9. 

Nutritive ratio, 113. 

Oats as food, 7,115. 

O'Brien's poultry house, 8G. 

Original ideas in feeding, 118. 

Orpington type, 26. 

Overcrowding chicks, 57. 

Oyster shell, 8. 

Parti-colors, 27. 

Pattison's poultry house, 80. 

Pea comb, 28. 

Penciled varieties, mating, 32. 

Perfection, physical, 20. 

Pit Game type, 27. 

Plymouth Rock type, 25. 

Polish type, 26. 

Position of walk, 61. 

Potential energy, 113. 

Poultry house fixtures, 120. 

Poultry keeper, defined, 18. 

Poultry shows, 140. 

Prices for drawn and undrawn poultry, 158. 

Proteids, 113. 

Protein, 113. 

Provender, 7. 

Quality in poultry house construction, 62. 

Railroad ties'for poultry house, 63. 

Range for chicks, 55. 

Range, yards and, 94. 

Elation, a dry grain, 12. 

Rations, a few good sample, 11. 

lations, dry mash, 12. 

tations for molting heDS, 98. 

'Satio, nutritive, 113. 

tearing chicks with hens, 43. 

led dog flour, 8. 

'.ed varieties, mating, 30; 

.esliugeggs, 39. 

oofings, prepared, 64. 

Roofs, styles of, 62. 
Roosting in trees, chicks, 54. 
Roosts, 121. 

Roost, teaching chicks to, 54. 

Rose comb, 28. 

Ryan's poultry house, 83. 

Sales, season of, 164. 

Sample rations, 11. > 

Scalding, 158. 

Scaly legs, 143. 

Scientific feeding, so-called. 112. 

Scratching for exercise, 16. 

Scratching room houses, 61. 

Scratching shed houses, 61. 

Selecting hens for mothers, 46. 

Selecting hens to keep over, 92. 

Selection, 19. 

Seleel Ion, novices' errors in, 21. 

Selection of exhibition specimens, 141. 

Selection of sitting hens, 38. 

Selling eggs for hatching, 165. 

; • - 1 1 i 1 1 k to private trade. 155. 

Semi-monitor top roof, 62. 

Separate vs. continuous houses, 99. 

Separating chicks, 57. 

Setting hens 35. 



Shade, 48. 

Shape, breed, 20, 24. 

Shell, 8. 

Shelters for chick?, 54. 

Shingles, 64. 

.Shipping eggs for hatching, 165. 

Shipping exhibition fowls, 147. 

Shipping stock, 164. 

Shorts, 8. 

Show, care of fowls at, 148. 

Shows, poultry, 140. 

Sick fowls, breeding from, 20. 

Silver laced varieties, mating, 33. 

Silver penciled varieties, mating, 32. 

Single comb, 28. 

Single pen houses, 60. 

Sitting hens, food and care of, 39. 

Skeleton nests, 126. 

Special feeding, 96. 

Standard matiugs, 21. 

Standard used in judging, 140. 

Straw for litter, 137. 

Sugar beets, 137. 

Sulpho-napthol for mites, 136. 

Summer, fattening foods in, 97. 

Summer feeding, 95. 

Summer management of fowls, 91. 

Tails, wry, 142. 

Temperature to keep eggs for hatching. 

Testing eggs, 41. 

Theory of scientific feeding, 113. 

Tiers, placing nests for sitters in, 37. 

Time of feeding, 96. 

Tobacco leaves for nests, hi. 

Toes, 29. 

Troughs, feed, 51, 123. 

Turniug eggs kept for hatching, 39. 

Two or more'pen houses, 60. 

Types, Asiatic, 25. 

Types, Mediterranean, 25. 

Undercolor, 32. 

"Values, the question of, 163. 

Vegetable foods, 8, 16. 

Vegetable mash, 12. 

Ventilation, 60, 94. 

Walk, doing work from, 10*. 

Walk, houses with, 61. 

Walks in continuous houses, 104. 

Walls, height of. 62. 

Washing fowls, 146. 

Water for chicks, 52. 

Wattles, 28. 

Weight, to increase rapidly, 145. 

Wheat, hard vs. soft, 119. 

When to set hens, 38. 

White middlings, 8. 

White varieties, mating, 29. 

Whitewashing, lo6. 

Why people fail in poultry keeping, 5. 

Width of house with walk, 64. 

Winter, feeding laying stock in, 14. 

Winter, getting ready for, 133. 

Winter quarters, putting stock into, 135. 

Winter supplies, YA(i. 

Wyandoite type, "J6. 

Yard room for chicks, 55. 

Yards and range, 94. 

Yard.-, renovating, 136. 






NEW EDITIOIN OF 

Poultry-Craft 

Same 'Matter. Bigger Value* 

Better Binding. Lower Rrice. 



What We Say to Sell the Book. 

When we first offered this book to the public a few years ago, we described it as "the most com- 
plete, concise and convenient work of its kind published ; — a guide book for beginners, a text book 
for learners., a reference book for working poultrymen and women." Today it is all this, and more. 
It is everywhere recognized as the standard work on practical poultry keeping, and a book which it 
is necessary for the intelligent, progressive poultry keeper to have. 

Publishing such a book to sell at the price which the cost of getting it up required for a first 
edition, was a good deal of an experiment, for the book had to be Bold in competition with hurriedly 
written pamphlets or hasty compilations advertised as exhaustive volumes, and sold at a small 
fractic n of the price of Poultry-C ka.pt. But the volume of sales has steadily increased as the people 
found out that, though high-priced, as poultry books go, it was worth the money. Now. with the 
costly nrst edition all sold, and the reputation of the book such that it costs us less to sell it than at 
the outset, we are in a position to offer Pocltby-Craft at a popular price, and with the issue of the 
aecoiui edition the price is cut to $1.50 per copy, postage prepaid, making it the best value ever 
offere 1 buyers of poultry books. 

V e do not think it necessary to dilate on the merits of the hook, but wish here to briefly em- 

'.a a few points : — It gives the gist of poultry knowledge in plain language for people who want 

i facta, practical ideas and trustworthy opinions. It tells what to do, why to do it, and how to 

do it. It covers its subject thoroughly, and its systematic arrangement and full index enable one to 

refer in an instant to any topic. It is the hand book of poultry culture for busy people. 

<3t <* 

What They Say Who Have Read the Book. 

"It is clear, concise, and intensely practical." 

"I find it exactly answers my inquiries, and does so in a clear, concise way." 

"It is clearly, fully, and yet briefly written, and treats of conditions and facts as they are." 

"There is no padding or filling. With everything essential it contains nothing superfluous." 

"Such a wealth of concise information we have never before seen gathered in a single volume." 

"It would be hard to think of any object of interest which has not been considered in these pages." 

"The advice is practical, and the style is so good that one wants to read it through at one sitting." 

We could go on with such quotations almost indefinitely, but why repeat ? Readers unanimously 
indorse the claims made for it by the publishers. Already in the few years it has been before the 
public it has helped hundreds to decide right how, when and where to go into poultry keeping ; has 
taught thousands better methods of poultry keeping ; and has come to be generally recognised as a 
trustworthy authority on poultry culture. 

-Sold on Approval. Price $1.50, post paid. 



Special Offer, 

FARM-POULTRY PUBLISHING CO., Boston, Mass. 



The regular price of Poultry-Craft is $1.50. For 
$1.75 we will give you a copy of this book and One 
Tear's subscription to Farm-Poultry semi-monthly. 





Nothing on Earth 

WILL 

Make Hens Lay 



LIKE 





Given to newly hatched chickens it insures their health 
and makes them strong. Persist in its use and the pul- 
lets mil lay early and through the winter, when eggs 
are high. Invaluable for molting hens. 

It is a Scientifically Prepared 
Food Digestive. 

Absolutely pure and highly concentrated ; mixed with 
any kind of food it will cause perfect assimilation, and 
result in healthy birds producing abundance of eggs. 
It was the pioneer of all advertised poultry tonics; there 
are many imitations, but Sheridan's Powder has 
never had an equal. In large cans costs less than a tenth 
of a cent a day. If you can't find It send to ua. 



Single pack 25 cts.; five f 1. Large two-lb. can f 1.20 ; six 
5*°,* ^AnSfcJS" 1 - ^mple "Bmt Poovtrt Pawe" free. 
I. 8. JOHNSON & CO., 232 Summer 8t., Boston, 



. 



